
Book •-H& 




WTTILILEi^ IE® ©AH. 



P P E R Y! 

AS IT ¥AS AID AS IT IS, 



AURICULAR CONFESSION; 



AND 



POPISH NUNNERIES 



BY WILLIAM HOGAN, ESQ., 

FORMERLY A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST. 



FIFTY-SECOND THOUSAxND. 



WITH SEVERAL ILLUSTRATIONS 

HARTFORD: 

SILAS ANDRUS & SON. 

1854. 



^"A 



aG 



^ 



V\^ 



ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN" THE YEAR 1345, BY 

WILLIAM HOGAN, 

^N THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



THE FOLLOWING PAGES 



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 



AMERICAN REPUBLICANS, 



THE AUTHOR, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



F.vGE. 

Portrait of William Hogan, 1 

Bishop of Pennsylvania blessing the Slicks, 115 

A Young Lady confessing to the Priest, 255 

Mother Abbess strangling the Infant, 2S5 

The Father in pursuit of the Priest, 554 



PREFACE. 



In submitting the following pages to the public, 1 can 
say, with truth, that 1 am actuated by no other motive 
than a sincere desire to promote the interest, and con 
tribute all in my power to perpetuate the free institutions, 
of this, my adopted country. 

It is many years since I have had any intercourse or 
connection with the church or priests of Rome; and I 
vainly imagined that, after the first outbreak of theii 
animosity, for repudiating their doctrines, it would suc- 
ceed into a calm indifference. I was aware of the cus 
torn, in that church, to defame and calumniate all who 
"went out from her;" but especially those who have 
held any distinguished position. 

Against such, appeals are immediately made to the peo- 
•ple by their priests, until, finally, maddened by sophistry, 
fanaticism, and falsehoods, they look upon the seceder as 
one whom it is their duty to destroy ; and in whose word^ 
honor, and virtue, no confidence is to be reposed. The 
object of the Romish church, in this, cannot be mistaken. 
It is too plain to escape even the least observant eye. A 
lawyer who can render legally valueless the testimony of 
opposing witnesses, seldom fails in establishing his case ; 
and hence it is that the Romish church never fails to de- 
stroy, if she can, the credibility of all who break loose from 



PREFACE. 

her, knowing them to be the best witnesses of her iniquities. 
But for some years back, and until recently, the violence 
of Popish priests against myself seemed to slumber. 
This was natural. In the body ecclesiastic, as well as in 
the natural body, a morbid excitement often succeeds a 
stupor; and recently these gentlemen have assailed me 
again. To apparent indifference succeeded a frantic 
zeal ; and from one end of this continent to the other, 
they have tried to injure me, by appeals to the public 
through their presses, and especially through the con- 
fessional. All this I would have disregarded, as usual, 
but I find that these priests have become politicians, and 
that every blow aimed at me, for the free exercise of my 
judgment as to the best mode of worshipping God, is 
aimed at the constitution of my adopted country, which 
grants this blessing, without let or hindrance, to all the 
children of men. 

Well aware that Americans are not acquainted with 
the designs of Popery against their country and its insti- 
tutions, I feel it my duty to lay before them the following 
pages. The perusal of them will satisfy every American 
that our country is in danger, not so much from enemies 
abroad as from foes within. They will find that Papists 
have reduced political, as well as religious corruption, to 
a system, and are, at this moment, practising it amongst 
us, upon a great and gigantic scale. 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 



When this country renounced its allegiance to 
the British crown, and proclaimed itself independent 
Popery was on the wane in Europe ; it was there 
getting more sickly, more languid and feeble, until 
it had little more than a mere nominal existence ; 
but while its blossoms were fading, its thorns 
retained their vitality, inflicting pains and wounds 
on all who came in contact with them. The 
Jesuits, one of the most influential orders of friars 
belonging to the Roman church, continued still 
active as ever in their fiendish avocations ; they 
roamed about, like so many gnomes, from country 
to country, and from people to people, carrying 
with them, and strewing on their paths, the seeds 
of moral death on all that was precious and valu- 
able in the social system. Whatever they touched 
was blighted ; whatever they said or preached 
breathed treachery ; wheiever they went, vice, 
crime, and duplicity marked their track. But dark 
as the times were then, enshrouded as they had 
been in ignorance, and idolatrous as the people 
were, they began to manifest some dissatisfaction 
at the machinations of Jesuits in their eflbrts to 
acquire temporal power. They began to feel it in 



8 SYNOPSIS or POPERY, 

the loss of their property, out of which they too late 
saw themselves gradually swindled ; they felt it in 
the loss of their liberty and civil rights, out of 
which they had been persuaded, all for the good 
OP THE CHURCH. Enduraucc became intolerable, 
and those unhallowed agents had to be partially 
suppressed. 

The Popish church, at this time, seeing the 
influence of her most active agents gradually 
diminishing, her ancient glories fading, and her 
power vanishing from her grasp ; and scarcely 
able to breathe any longer in the putrid atmos- 
phere which her own corruption and impurities 
had created, very naturally turned her eyes to- 
ward s this brilliant new world. It was then 
young and beautiful ; it abounded in all the luxu- 
ries of nature ; it promised all that was desirable to 
man. The holy church, seeing these irresistible 
temptations, thirsting with avarice, and yearning 
for the reestablishment of her falling greatness, 
soon commenced pouring in among its unsuspect- 
ing people hordes of Jesuits and other friars, with 
a view of forming among them institutions which 
were already found to be destructive to the peace 
and morals of all social and religious principles in 
Europe. We now see Popish colleges, and nun- 
neries, and monastic institutions, springing up in 
our hitherto happy republic ; and, if similar causes 
continue, as they have ever done, to produce 
similar effects, it needs no prophet's eye to see, 
nor inspired tongue to tell, what the consequences 
must be to posterity. Many suppose that Popery 
has been modified ; that it is different now from 
what it was in ancient times ; that the spirit which 
actuated Papists in those dark days ceases to influ- 
ence them now that the faggot, the rack, and vari- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 



ous Other modes of torture, are not still in use in the 
Roman church, and that it has long ceased to lay 
o'aim, by divine right, to temporal sovereignty, or to 
any other of those prerogatives wliich they formerly 
insisted upon. There are some so fastidiously liberal 
as to grant them ail immunities which may be with 
safety granted to other sects ; others there are, so 
patriotic as to hold at defiance all their power ; 
and others so self-conceited as to fancy themselves 
an over-match even for Jesuits, in religious chi- 
canery and political intrigue. 

All this arises, not from want of true zeal in 
American Protestants, but because they are unac- 
quainted with the canons of the Romish church. 
These canons are inaccessible to the majority of 
the American people, even of theologians, and with 
the purport and meaning of them none but those 
who have been educated Roman Catholic priests 
have much or any acquaintance. I hesitate not to 
say — although I do so with the utmost respect 
and deference — that there are but few American 
theologians who have much acquaintance with the 
doctrines or canons of the Romish church. They 
form no part of their studies ; a knowledge of 
them is not necessary in the legitimate discharge 
of their pastoral duties ; and hence it is, that m 
many of their controversies with Romish priests, 
they are not unfrequently browbeaten, bullied, and 
often almost ignominiously driven from the arena 
of controversy by men who, in point of general 
information, virtue, piety, zeal, and scriptural 
knowledge, are greatly their inferiors. He who 
argues with Catholic priests must have had his 
education with them ; he must be of them and 
from among them. He must know, from expe- 
rience, that they will stop at no falsehood whore 
1* 



10 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

the good Oi the church is concerned ; he must 
iCnow that the J' will scruple at no forgery when 
they desire to establish any point of doctrine, 
fundamental or not fundamental, which is taught 
by their church ; he must be aware that it is a 
standing rule with Popish priests, in all their con- 
troversies with Protestants, to admit nothing and 
deny every thing, and that, if still driven into diffi- 
culty, they will still have recourse to the archives 
of the church, where they keep piles of decretals, 
canons, rescripts, bulls, excommunications, inter- 
dicts, ifcc, ready for all such emergencies ; some of 
them dated from three hundred to a thousand 
years before they were written or even thought of ; 
showing more clearly, perhaps, than anything else, 
the extreme ignorance of mankind between the 
third and ninth centuries, when most of these 
forgeries were palmed upon the world. With the 
aid of these miserable forgeries, they attempt to 
prove, among other things, that the divine right of 
the Pope to the sovereignty of this world was 
acknowledged by the fathers of the church, in 
the earliest days of Christianity. 

There are to be found now, in the Vatican at 
Rome, canons and decretals which go to show 
that the Pope was considered "equal to God," as 
early as the third century. More of these impious 
forgeries attempt to show that some of the most 
pious fathers of the church, in the days of her 
unquestioned sanctity and piety, acknowledged 
*'Mary, the mother of Jesus, to be equal to God 
the Son, and deserved supreme adoration." With 
these forged instruments, they attempt to show that 
the primitive Christians believed in the real and 
actual presence of the whole body and blood of 
Christ, in the wafer which they call the Eucharist 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 11 

Monstrous, horrible, and impions, as these absurdi-^ 
ties are, I once believed them myself. So much 
for the prejudices of education. 

The object of the following pages is to show, 
first, the origin of Papal power ; secondly, to call 
the attention of Americans to its rapid growth in 
many of the nations of the earth ; and, thirdly, to 
put my fellow citizens on their guard against 
giving it any countenance or support within the 
limits of the United States. 



ORIGIN OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE. 

We have no authentic evidence that the bishops 
or presbyters of the primitive Christian church 
laid claims to temporal power, much less to uni- 
versal sovereignty, such as Popes have arrogated to 
themselves, in subsequent times, even down to the 
present day. Constantine, as we are informed by 
the best authorities, was the first to unite civil and 
ecclesiastical power. He introduced Christianity 
among the Romans by civil authority. This oc- 
curred between the years 272 and 337 ; but never 
during his reign, nor before it, was there an in- 
stance of a bishop or presbyter of the church 
aspiring to temporal jurisdiction. They were poor 
and persecuted ; they were meek and humble ; 
they were well content with the privilege of 
worshipping God in peace. The instructions of 
their divine Master were fresh in their minds — 
they almost still rung in their ears. They felt 
that they were sent into the world with speciat 
instructions to " preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture." Their heavenly Master told them that his 



12 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

^'kingdom was not of this world." They felt the 
full force of that high and holy admonition, " Ren- 
der to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to 
God the things that are God's." They cheerfully 
submitted to the civil authorities. They claimed not 
the right of giving away kingdoms, crowning em- 
perors, deposing princes, and absolving their sub- 
jects from their oaths of allegiance. These pure 
Christians and devout men asked for no distinctions, 
but those of virtue and zeal in the cause of Christ ; 
they sought for no wealth but that of Heaven ; they 
desired no crown but that of glory; they sought 
no tiara save that of martyrdom ; they were sur- 
rounded by no court but that of the poor ; no col- 
lege of cardinals waited on their pleasure ; there 
were no nu7icios sent from their court ; no foreign 
ambassadors passed between them and the powers 
of this earth. The only court with which they 
had business to transact, and in which their treas- 
ures were laid up, was the court of Heaven ; and 
their only ambassadors at that court were the 
angels of heaven, sent forth to minister unto them. 
But this state of things did not last long. As a 
modern writer beautifully expresses it, " the trail 
of the serpent is over us all." The Emperor 
Constantino, seeing the poverty of the primitive 
church, — her yast and progressive increase in num- 
bers and the consequent demand upon her charities, 
— -granted to her bishops permission to hold prop- 
erty, real and personal. This concession on the 
part of Constantino, simple and trifling as it seemed 
to be ; this commingling of the things of heaven 
and earth, was unnatural. It contained within 
Itself the principles of dissolution, or rather of entire 
destruction ; and became, in time, the source from 
which have sprung most of the wars, massacres, 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 13 

and bloody strifes, that have desolated and divided 
into fragmentary sections, the richest, the fairest, and 
the finest portions ot the globe, during the last fif- 
teen hundred years ; and will continue to do so, 
unto the end of time, unless the advance of civili- 
zation, and the great progress which the human 
mind has made in ethics, morals, and metaphysics, 
on this continent, puts an immediate check to 
Popish interference with the policy of our country. 

Could we suppose an individual, who knew 
nothing of ancient times ; who was an entire stran- 
ger to the darkness which pervaded Europe during 
the middle ages ; who had no acquaintance with 
the pretensions, arrogance and insolence of Roman 
pontiffs ; who knew no other constitution and no 
other laws but those of our own country ; he could 
not but feel surprised at being first told, that there 
now lived in Rome, an upstart ecclesiastic, called a 
Pope^ who has the hardihood to assert that he is 
Sovereign Lord, and that too by divine right, of 
these United States, as well as of all other kingdoms 
of this world. He goes even further, and con- 
tends that his predecessors had similar divine 
rights, and that all the citizens and inhabitants of 
this country owed allegiance to him personally, and 
to no one else, unless delegated by him to receive 
it. But strange as this may appear, it is no less 
true, as I will show from authorities, which cannot 
be questioned, by those who claim such extravagant 
immunities. 

The Pope of Rome predicates his claim to uni- 
versal sovereignty upon the power of loosing and 
binding on earth and in heaven ; which, in the ex- 
uberance of their fancy, Roman Catholic writers 
contend was given to St. Peter. Their next step 
is to prove, that this supremacy was ar knowledged 



14 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

by the primitive fathers of the church, and conse- 
quently their rights and claims are beyond dispute. 
But before I proceed to give any of the authori- 
ties, upon which Roman Cathohc writers rest the 
antiquity of the recognition of their Pope's tem- 
poral power, it may not be amiss to inform the 
reader that the very first on which they rely is one 
of the most unblushing forgeries on record; and is 
dated about six hundred years previous to the time 
at which it purports to have been written. It is 
taken from the words of a conveyance of certain 
temporal concessions, said to be made by tlie Em- 
peror Constantino to Pope Sylvester, some time 
between the second and third centuries. It is in 
the following words : 

" We attribute to the chair of St. Peter all impe- 
rial dignity, glory, and power. We give to Pope 
Sylvester, and to his successors, our palace of Late- 
ran, one of the finest palaces on earth ; we give him 
our crown, our mitre, our diadem, and all our im- 
perial vestments; we resign to him all our imperial 
dignity. We give the Holy Pontiff, as a free gift, 
the city of Rome, and all the western cities of 
Italy, as well as the western cities of other countries. 
To make room for him, we abdicate our sovereignty 
over all these provinces, and we withdraw from 
Rome, transferring the seat of our empire to Byzan- 
tium ; since it is not just that a terrestrial emperor 
shall retain any power where God has placed the 
head of the church." 

It would be a waste of time to show that no such 
donation as the above ever existed. No mention is 
made of it in any history of the Popes that has ever 
been written, or in any other document which had 
reference to them during the reign of Constantino. 
It is a forgery so shallow, unreal, and unsubstantial, 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 15 

that there is no well-educated historian, and never 
has been one, who gave it any credence. The his- 
torian Fie wry pronounces it a falsehood ,• and he, 
being a Roman Catholic, must be considered 
good authority upon all matters relating to the 
lioly church. The quotation, however, from this 
supposed deed of concession, by Constantine to 
Pope Sylvester, is not without instruction to the 
citizens of this country. It should arouse them to 
a sense of the dangers which are hovering over 
them. It should remind them that every thing is 
perishable. The fairest flower must fade ; the love- 
liest lily must wither ; the laughing rose must droop ; 
even our fair republic may lose its bloom, and 
pass away. A state of things may arise in this 
country, when its executive may be a Papist, its ju- 
diciary Papists, and a majority of its population may 
be Papists. These things are not beyond the range 
of possibility ; and are you sure that your own de- 
scendants, and those of the pilgrim fathers, may not, 
one day or other, give this republic as a free gift to 
the head of the Papal church ? You are now strong 
— so was Rome. Your power is now irresistible — 
so was that of Rome and other countries. Your 
arms are invincible — so were those of Rome. You 
are now distinguished all over the world, for your 
progress in the arts and sciences ; the world looks 
to you as models of patriotism and pure republican- 
ism — so did the world once look to Rome. But 
what is Rome now, and what drove her from the 
high position she once occupied ? I will tell you ; — 
the intrigues of the Popish church. And a similar 
fate awaits you, unless you cut off all connection, 
of whatever name, between the citizens of the 
United States and the church of Rome. While 
this sink of iniquity breathes, it will carry with it 
destruction and death wherever it goeth. 



16 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

We have had several histories of the Popes, and 
the first mention made of donations to them, at 
least of any comparative value, is by Anastasius, v/ho 
wrote about the beginning of the tenth century, or 
a little before the close of the ninth. He informs 
us that Charlemagne conferred upon the Holy See 
(as that hotbed of iniquity is impiously, even at 
the present day, called) whole provinces^ and ac- 
knowledged that they belonged to the Pope by 
divine right ; though it is well understood, and de- 
nied by no competent historian, that Charlemagne 
never even owned these provinces. It is well 
known to the readers of history, that there existed 
no empire of any extent, but that of the East, until 
the beginning of the eighth century. Charlemagne 
assumed the title of King of Italy, in the year eight 
hundred. He received homage from the Pope, and 
so far from being subject to him, he acknowledged 
no divine right in him ; but on the contrary, he held 
the Pope in strict subjection to himself. He even 
went so far as to prohibit the Holi/ See fvom receiv- 
ing donations of any kind, when given without 
the consent or to the prejudice of those who had 
just and equitable, claims to them. 

This, if there were no other proof, is sufficient 
to show that neither the Popes nor the Holy See 
had any pretensions to universal supremacy, or to 
supremacy of any kind, as far down as the eighth 
century. It will not be denied that the civil au- 
thorities of Rome were liberally disposed toward? 
the Popes or fathers of the church in the early 
days of Christianity. The Emperor Theodosius 
the Great, who died in the year three hundred and 
ninety five, recommended to all his subjects to pay 
'' a due respect to the See of Rome." Valentian 
III. commanded his subjects ^'not to depart from 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 17 

the faith and customs of the Holy See.^^ It will 
however be borne in mind, that this Valentian was 
acknowledged emperor at the age of six, and his 
affairs were managed principally by his mother. 
So dissipated were his habits, that he finally fell 
a victim to them. But up to this period ftiere is no 
evidence whatever that the Popes either claimed or 
exercised temporal authority. 

About this time several councils met for the pur- 
pose of adjusting disputes that arose between the 
sons of the successor of Charlemagne, who unwisely, 
£is historians suppose, divided his empire into three 
equal parts anong them. It was at one of these 
councils, that the doctrine of the divine right of 
Popes to temporal authority was first broached by the 
production of some of those forged documents to 
which I have heretofore alluded. Pope Gregory the 
Fourth took an active part in fomenting the dissen- 
sions which necessarily arose from the division which 
the successor of Charlemagne had made of his em- 
pire among his sons. The Pope, with that craft 
peculiar to all ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic 
denominations, was active in widening the breach 
between father and sons, and having effected this 
to his content, his next move was to sow further 
dissensions between the sons themselves, and finally 
to create such a general confusion and dissatisfac- 
tion among all parties, as to render a mediator ne- 
cessary. Having attained his object, he offered his 
services to the Imperial Father, and it was accepted. 
He presented himself at his camp, obtained an 
entrance, and what were the consequences ? His- 
tory tells the tale — it was a tale of treachery. 

This serpent, clothed in his pontificals, enters the 
camp, tampers with the chief officers of the empe- 
ror's aimy, absolves them from all lurther allegiance 



18 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

to him, and promises them forgiveness both here 
and hereafter. Some adherents of the emperor, 
indignant at this conduct of the Pope, remonstrated 
with him ; and what was his answer ? " Know 
you," said this insolent Pope, addressing himself to 
the people, " that my chair is above the chair of 
the emperor." But this Pope did no more than 
every succeeding one would have done under simi- 
lar circumstances. If we look back to the page of 
history, from the present period to the days of Char- 
lemagne, Louis Debonaire, and Gregory the Fourth, 
we shall find that it has been an invariable practice 
with the Roman See to sow dissensions and dis- 
union in every government where it has obtained 
a footing, with the ultimate view of its final over- 
throw and subjecting it to Popish vassalage. 

Americans will bear in mind that Roman Catho- 
lics believe their church to be infallible ; that she 
never changes ; that what was deemed right by 
her in the days of Gregory and those of his imme- 
diate successors, is right now, and, vice versa, what 
she deems right now was right then. In a word, 
the church of Rome is infallible. This is believed 
by every one of her members at the present day. It 
is taught by every Popish bishop and priest in the 
United States. 

The following curse is contained in the Roman 
Catholic Breviary, in which, every Romish priest , 
reads his prayers three times every day. " Qui 
dicit ecclesiani catholicam Roinana7n non esse infal- 
libilem, anathema sit — Whoever says that the Ro- 
man Catholic church is not infallible, let him be 
accursed." Such is the belief of every Roman 
Catholic. Will not Protestant Americans j)ause 
and reflect for a moment ? The population of the 
United States is about twenty millions, and about 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 19 

two millions are Papists. Consequently, seventeen 
millions and a half of our people are accursed and 
damned^ according to the doctrine of the Romish 
ritual ; and yet we Protestants are called upon to ex- 
tend the hand of friendship to these Papists, and our 
legislators are asked to grant them charters to build 
colleges, churches, nunneries, and monk-houses, not 
for the purpose of teaching the growing genera- 
tion the revealed will of God, as read in the Scrip- 
tures, but to persuade them that all other religions, 
except that of Rome, are erroneous ; that their pa- 
rents, brothers, and sisters, are heretics, accursed 
forever, and by implication entitled to no allegiance 
from them. 

The Pope is now setting on foot a movement 
which is intended to embrace the whole world, and 
of which he desires Rome to be the sole representa- 
tive, centre, and circumference. The powers of 
the Pope have met with several severe shocks since 
the Reformation. His forces have been broken, his 
armies of Jesuits, his friars of all orders, Dominicans, 
Franciscans, and Capuchins, have been scattered and 
enfeebled. He determined to arm himself afresh, 
and this new world appeared to him as the safest 
ground on which he could unite his scattered forces 
in Europe. This he well knows cannot be done, 
without throwing some fire-brand of dissension 
among our people, which at this moment he is try- 
ing to effect ; and which nothing but the resistance 
offered to him by American Republicans can 
check or prevent. 

On the continuance, strength, and union of this 
party, depends the stability of our government. 
This the Romish priests and bisnops well know, 
and are begiiming to feel ; and hence they are de- 
nouncing them from their pulpits, and in all their 



20 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

presses. But no Protestant opposes this party 
Why call it a party? It is no party. It is but 
the spontaneous move of the good and the virtuous 
of all parties who love their God, their Bibles, and 
their country, and upon whose strong arm and bold 
hearts rests the question whether Americans shall 
be free or the slaves of his royal holiness the Pope 
of Rome. Often have I lifted my voice, a feeble 
one, indeed, in favor of American Repuhlicaiis. I 
believe their cause is the cause of God and freedom, 
and upon them every American and every Protes- 
tant foreigner must rely for protection against the 
merciless spirit of Popery. 

It requires no stretch of imagination to fancy a 
difference of opinion, or even of interest, between 
the citizens of this country. Suppose, for instance, 
that the North and South were at variance ; suppose 
them actually at war with each other; what would 
be the course of the Pope's emissaries, hundreds 
of whom are now roaming through this land ? The 
safest course and the surest mode of ascertaining 
what they would do in such an event, is to look back 
and ascertain what they have invariably done under 
similar circumstances. It is seldom wrong, and as 
a general principle it is safe, to judge of the future 
from the past ; and if so, there can be nt) doubt of 
the course which Jesuits and Roman Catholics 
would pursue in the event of any difficulties or 
collisions between the people of the different sec- 
tions of this country. Would they try to reconcixe 
them ^ Did they ever do so in a like case ? What 
was the conduct of the Jesuits and Popes as early 
as the eleventh century, when the Roman people 
aiffered in opinion as to their form of government, 
and some points of religious faith ? The. Pope laid 
an interdict upon the whole people ; the weaker 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 21 

party was overpowered by the Papal authorities ; 
and their leader, as Fie wry informs us, was burned 
alive by order of the Pope Adrian. Frederick, 
called Barbarossa, who was the tool of the Pope on 
this occasion, became the next victim to his bar- 
barity. And why ? what had he done ? what crime 
did he commit against the state ? His only crime 
was, — he refused to hold the Pope's stirrup. For 
this he incurred the displeasure of Adrian, nor did 
he ever enjoy a day's peace until the Pope seduced 
him into an expedition against Saladin; where, to- 
gether with thousands of others, who were per- 
suaded to undertake that religious crusade, he died 
after several hard fought victories. 

The history of the Popes, in all ages, shows that 
they never abandon any temporal or spiritual au- 
thority to which they lay claim ; and had they the 
power of enforcing it now, they would exact from 
this country the same obedience which they did in 
the most benighted days of the middle ages. Should 
a separation of these States take place ; should the 
chain that has bound us together for the last half cen- 
tury, in links of love and social happiness, be unfor- 
tunately broken, by any untoward circumstances ; 
think you, fellow citizens, that foreign Papists in this 
country would try to re weld it? Far from it. They 
would unite in breaking it, link by link, until not a 
particle of it remained. This they have done in 
every country where they obtained a footing ; this 
they are doing now, under various pretences, all over 
Europe ; and should this country escape the fate of 
others, where Jesuits and Popes dare to exercise 
their supposed authorities, it will stand prominent 
and proudly, though solitary and alone, amid the 
records of ages, and ruins of time. I have no such 
hope. The efforts which are now making to check 



22 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

the progress of Popery, may, perhaps, retard the 
day of our downfall ; but come it mast, unless the 
allegiance, which is now demanded by the Pope of 
Rome from his subjects in the United States, is un- 
qualifiedly forbidden. The Pope is a temporal 
prince. Like other kings and princes, he should 
never be permitted to meddle, directly or indirectly, 
temporally or spiritually, with this country. He 
should not be permitted to appoint bishop or 
priest to any church, diocese, living, or office in the 
United States. The Pope's hulls, rescripts, letters, 
&c., &c., should not be published or read from any 
pulpit this side of the Atlantic ; and, though Roman 
Catholics should not be prevented from the free 
exercise of their religion, they should be compelled 
to do so without reference to foreign dictation. If 
they must have a Pope, let him be an American, 
and sworn to support our constitution. Let him, 
and all Roman Catholics, be denied the right of 
voting, or of holding any office of honor, profit, or 
trust, under the government of the United States, 
until they forswear all allegiance, in spiritual as 
well as temporal affairs, to all foreign potentates 
and Popes. Until this is done, an oath of allegiance 
to this government, by a Roman Catholic, is enti- 
tled to no credit, and should not be received. This 
will appear evident to Americans, if they will turn 
their attention for a moment to the following oath, 
which is taken by every Romish bishop, before he 
is permitted to officiate, as such, in any of these 
United States : — 

" I do solemnly swear, on the holy evangelist, 
and before Almighty God, to defend the domains of 
St. Peter against every aggressor ; to preserve, aug- 
ment, and extend, the rights, honors, privileges, and 
powers of the Lord Pope, and his successors ; to 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 23 

observe, and with all my might to enforce, his de- 
crees, ordinances, reservations, provisions, and al. 
dispositions whatever, emanating from the court of 
Rome ; to persecute and combat^ to the last extremity, 
heretics, scismatics, and all loho will not pay to the 
sovereign pontiff all the obedience lohich the sove- 
reig7i shall require.'^ 

While this oath is obligatory upon Romish bish- 
ops, they are not to be trusted. They should not 
be permitted to interfere, directly nor indirectly, 
with the institutions, laws, or ordinances of any 
Protestant country. Their oaths should not be 
taken in courts of justice ; their followers, every 
one of whom is bound by a similar oath of alle- 
giance, should be excluded from our grand juries, 
from our petit juries, but more especially, from 
our halls of legislation ; for wherever and whenever 
the supposed interest of the Pope clashes with that 
of the civil authority, or even with the adminis- 
tration of reciprocal justice, a Papist, under the 
control of his bishop, will not hesitate to sacrifice 
the good of the country, the interest, life, and pros- 
perity of his fellow-being, for the good of the 
church. Of the truth of this, history abounds 
with examples, and Popish writers are replete with 
authorities. 

Thomas Aquinas, whose authority no Roman 
Catholic questions, says in his work de Regent., 
" The Pope, as supreme king of all the world, may 
impose taxes and destroy towns and castles for 
the preservation of Christianity." The American 
reader will bear in mind, that by Christianity, St. 
Thomas means Popery. Pope Gregory the Seventh, 
about the year one thousand and fifty, has made 
use of the following language, and proclaimed it as 
the doctrine of the Romish Church. " The Pope 



24 

ought to be called Universal Bishop. He alone 
ought to wear the tokens of imperial dignity ; all 
princes ought to kiss his feet ; he has power to 
depose emperors and kings, and is to be judged by 
none." Pope John the Twelfth, in the year nine 
hundred and fifty-six, announced the following to 
be the universal belief, that "Whosoever shall ven- 
ture to maintain that our lord the Pope cannot 
decree what he pleases, let him be accursed." 
Pope Bonifice the Eighth, in 1294, declares, ex 
cathedra^ " that God has set Popes over kings and 
kingdoms, and whoever thinks otherwise declares 
him accursed." The same Pope, in another place, 
says, " We therefore declare, say, define, and pro- 
nounce it to be necessa.ry to salvation, that every 
human creature should be obedient to the Roman 
pontiff." The Pope of the present day, as every 
Roman Catholic writer maintains and teaches the 
laity to believe, has the same power now that the 
Popes had at any period of church history. 

The council of Trent, the last held in the 
Popish church, declares that Pius the Fifth, who 
was then Pope of Rome, " was prince over all 
nations and kingdoms, having power to pluck up, 
destroy, scatter, ruin, plant, and build." Cardinal 
Zeba, a sound theologian according to Popish 
belief, maintains, with much ingenuity, " that the 
Pope can-do all things which he wishes, and is 
empowered by God to do many things which he 
himself cannot do." All writers upon canon 
law compliment the Pope by caUing him our Lord 
the Pope, and this title was confirmed to him by 
the council of Lateran. In the fourth session of 
that council, it is maintained "that all. mortals are 
to be judged by the Pope, and the Pope by nobody 
at all." Massonius, who wrote the life of Pope 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 25 

John the Ninth, tells us that a bishop of Rome, 
namely, a Pope, cannot commit even sin witliout 
praise." 

Were there no other reproach upon the Romish 
church but the bare utterance of such blasphemy 
as this, it would be enough to ^disgust mankind ; 
it should raise every voice in her condemnation, 
and every hand to pull down this masterpiece of 
Satanic ingenuity. But strange as it may appear, 
the present Pope maintains similar claims, and 
enforces obedience ; nay, more ; — in this year of 
our Lord, 1S45, insists upon the right of deposing 
all in power, and of absolving their subjects from 
further allegiance. 

But, extravagant as Papal pretensions were be- 
tween the ninth and tenth centuries, it was only 
about the middle of the eleventh that they began 
to show themselves in the full blaze of their hide- 
ous deformity. Hildebrand, whom we have had oc- 
casion to mention as Gregory the Seventh, shook off 
all civil restraint, and proclaimed the universal and 
unbounded empire of the Popes over the rest of the 
world. 

As Shoberl expresses it, '' he caused to be drawn 
up a declaration of independence in all things, 
temporal and spiritual, expressly specifying the 
Pope's divine right of deposing all princes, giving 
away all kingdoms, abrogating existing laws, and 
substituting in their place such as the holy Pope for 
the time being may approve of" This declaration, 
or bill of rights, is correctly translated by Sho- 
berl, and published in his work, entitled, " The Rise 
and Progress of the Papal Power." Many, proba- 
bly, may read this volume, who have had no oppor- 
tunity of seeing Shoberl's work ; and others there 
are, who may refuse giving his statement that 
2 



26 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY; 

credence which circumstances compel them to give 
the writer. 

Having been educated a Roman Catholic priest, 
and the fact being well known that admission can- 
not be had into her priesthood without being well 
verged, at least in her own doctrines, it is fairly to 
be presumed that my statements are entitled to full 
credit, when those of Protestants may be denied 
by Romish priests, who, while united with that 
church, are compelled, under pain of being cursed, 
ro subscribe to any falsehood, however gross, pro- 
vided it subserves the interest of the Pope ; and 
deny any truth, however plain, rather than contra- 
dict or weaken the authorities by which the impi- 
ous follies and wicked pretensions of the church of 
Rome are supported. I will give this bill of rights 
to my readers. It should be in the hands of every 
American. It should find a place in every primary 
school in the United States. It should be among 
the first lessons of infancy, so that every child, 
when he grows up and sees a Roman Catholic 
bishop or priest, should pause and ask himself, Does 
that man believe those things? Are we called on 
to pass laws for the support and protection of 
churches, where such doctrines, as this hill contains, 
are promulgated? Can we trust the man who pro- 
mralgates them, or those who subscribe to them ? 
Is it safe to live in the same community with them ? 
Do they not endanger our civil institutions? Do 
they not jeopardize the morals of our children? 
Will it not, at some future day, be a blot upon the 
page of our history, and a foul stain upon our char- 
acter for intelligence, that we have ever sanctioned 
such doctrines, or that we had ever allowed men 
who professed them, any participation in our civil 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 27 

rights ^ But let Pope Gregory's declaration of Papal 
divine rights speak for itself. 

" The Romish church is the only one that God 
has founded. 

" The title of universal belongs to the Roman 
pontiff alone. 

" He alone can depose and absolve bishops. 

''His legate presides over all the bishops in ev- 
ery council, and may pronounce sentence of deposi- 
tion against them 

" The Pope can depose absent persons. 

" It is not lawfu.1 to live with such as have been 
excommunicated. 

" He has the power, according to circumstances, 
to make new laws, to create new churches, to trans- 
form a chapter into an abbey, and to divide a rich 
bishopric into two, or to unite two poor bishoprics. 

" He alone has a right to assume the attributes 
of empire. 

"All princes must kiss his feet. 

'' His name is the only one to be uttered in the 
churches. 

^'' It is the only name in the world. 

'• He has a right to depose emperors. 

*' He has a right to remove bishops from one see 
to another. 

" He has a right to appoint a clerk [priest] in 
every church. 

'^ He, whom he has appointed, may govern an- 
other church, and cannot receive a higher benefice 
from any private bishop. 

" No council can call itself general without the 
order of the Pope. 

'' No chapter, no book, can be reputed canonical 
without his authority. 



»0 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

"No one can invalidate his sentences; he can 
abrogate those of all other persons. , 

" He cannot be judged by any one. 

^' All persons whatsoever are forbidden to pre- 
sume to condemn him who is called to the apostol- 
ical chair. 

" To this chair must be brought the more impor- 
tant causes of all the churches. 

'' The Roman church is never wrong, and will 
never fall into error. 

" Every Roman pontiff, canonically ordained, be- 
comes holy. 

"It is lawful to accuse when he permits, or when 
he commands. 

'•' He may, without synod, depose and absolve 
bishops. 

" He is no Catholic who is not united to the 
Romish church. 

" The Pope can release the subjects of bad princes 
from all oaths of allegiance." 

Those who have not been educated Roman Cath- 
olics, or who have not lived in Catholic countries, 
will find it difficult to suppose that such pretensions 
as the above should ever have been entertained or 
submitted to : extravagant, absurd, wild, and wick- 
ed as they are, they have been acquiesced in by 
the court of Rome ; and are, at this day, contended 
for, and would be enforced, in this country, had that 
church the power to do so. She has never resigned 
the rights claimed in the above declaration; and 
there is not a Roman Catholic who dares assert the 
contrary, without a dispensation from his bishop oi 
his priest to tell a deliberate falsehood, with a view 
of deceiving Americans for the good of the church 
This, however, they can always obtain and grant 
to each other, as circumstances may require. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 29 

While a Roman Catholic priest, I have often re- 
ceived and given such indulgences myself; and 
there is not a period in the Christian world, since 
the days of Pope Gregory, when all the powers and 
prerogatives, enumerated in the above Papal bill of 
rights, were not claimed and acted upon by Popes 
of Rome, down to the hour at which I write. Let 
us test the truth of this assertion by the unerring 
rule of history, although it may seem unnecessary, 
as no Roman Catholic will deny it ; at any rate, it 
will not be questioned by those who have any ac- 
quaintance with the history of their own church. 
I am well aware that the majority of Roman Cath- 
olics in this country know nothing of the religion 
which they profess, and for which they are willing 
to fight, contend, and shed the blood of their fellow 
beings. I am not even hazarding an assertion, when 
I say there is not one of them who has read the 
gospels through, or who knows any more about 
the religion he professes, than he does about the 
Koran of Mohammed. He is told uj the priest, 
'' that Christ established a church on earth ; that it 
is infallible ; and that they must submit implicitly 
to what its popes, priests, and bishops teach, under 
pain of eternal damnation." This is all the great 
mass of R.Oman Catholics know of religion ; this is 
all they are required to learn ; and hence it is that 
these people are unacquainted with the pretensions of 
the Pope, the intrigues of Jesuits, or the impositions 
practised upon them by their bishops and priests. 

But to the history of Papal pretensions. As early 
as the year 1066, Gregory, who was then Pope, 
summoned William the Conqueror, king of Eng- 
land, to repair to Rome, prostrate himself upon hin 
knees, and do homage to his hohness. This 
William refused ; but his holiness deemed it expe- 



30 



dient to compromise the matter, though he did not 
yield a jot of his very modest pretensions. This 
humble follower of the Redeemer looked upon Sar- 
dinia and Russia as a portion of his dominions. 
The following extract of a letter of his, to the sove- 
reign of Russia, is a fair sample of the insolence 
of this man Pope, or rather this God Pope, as his 
subjects considered him. " We have given you a 
crown to your son, who is to come and to receive 
it at our hands on taking an oath of allegiance to 
us." He also commanded the emperor of Greece 
"to abdicate his crown," and he also deposed the 
king of Poland. This modest Pope wrote to the 
different princes of Spain, " that it would be much 
better ^'^ give up their country to the Saracens, than 
not pa homage to the See of Rome." He excom- 
municated Philip the First of France, because he 
refused to ''pay homage to him." Writing to the 
French bishops, he says, " Separate yourselves from 
the communion of Philip ; let the celebration of the 
holy mass be interdicted throughout all France; 
and know that, with the assistance of God, we will 
deliver that kingdom from such an oppressor." 
This same Pope excommunicated Henry the Fourth, 
" because he refused to acknowledge him as his 
superior," and absolved his subjects from their oath 
of allegiance to him : and what was the result ? 
Henry was obliged to submit. Having repaired to 
the Pope's court, he was stopped at the entrance, 
and before he was permitted to appear in the pres- 
ence of this ruffian Pope, who was then shut up 
with Matilda, countess of Tuscany, one of the 
numerous women with whom he lived on terms 
of intijnacy, he was compelled to undress and put 
on a hair shirt. The Pope then condescended to 
say, " that Henry should fast three days, before he 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 31 

could be pormitted to kiss his holiness's toe ; and 
he would then absolve him upon promise of good 
behavior." 

Alexander the Third, about the year 1160, de- 
posed Frederic First, king of Denmark; and placing 
his foot upon liis neck, he impiously exclaimed, 
" Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder." 
This practice and these pretensions to sovereign 
power, continued down to the days of Elizabeth j 
and from thence down to the present moment. 
Pope Pius Y. excommunicated Elizabeth, and ab- 
solved her subjects from their oath of allegiance: 
and while doing so, addressed to himself the fol- 
lowing words from the Psalmist : " See, I have this 
day set thee over the nations, and over the king- 
doms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy, to 
build up, and to throw down." More of this here- 
after. 

Such were the doctrines of the Romish church 
in 1558. Such were the practices of that church 
for centuries previous ; nor is there one single in- 
stance on record of her having modified or abridged 
the extent or magnitude of her claims, unless when 
compelled to do so by coercion ; and even then she 
did not abandon her claim, but only ceased to ex- 
ercise it in obedience to the law of force. The Rom- 
ish church, in this country, as I shall show, claims 
the same temporal powers now which she has al- 
ways claimed and exercised for so many centuries. 
She would now depose the executive of this country, 
ai? she did Philip of France, if she dared do so. 
The Pope would absolve our citizens from their 
oath of allegiance, had he the power of carrying 
his dispensation into eifect ; and what is the duty 
of Americans under such circumstances ? Are you 
to submit passively ? Is it your duty to wait and 



82 

witness the growth of Popery among you, to nour- 
ish and feed it with the life blood of your existence 
as a nation, until the monster outgrows your own 
strength and strangles you, to satiate its inordinate 
appetite ? I lay it down as a sound principle in 
political as well as moral ethics, that if a govern- 
ment finds, within the limits of its jurisdiction, any 
sect or party, of whatever doctrine, creed, or denom- 
ination, professing principles incompatible with its 
permanency, or subversive of the unalienable right 
of self government, and worshipping God, according 
to the dictates of each and every man's conscience, 
that sect or party should be removed beyond its 
limits, or at least excluded from any participation 
in the formation or administration of its laws. 

Would it, for instance, be v/ise in our govern- 
ment to encourage the Mormons to introduce 
imong US; as the law of the land, the ravings and 
prophesies of Joe Smith ? Suppose that sect main- 
tained that Joe Smith was their Lord God ; that the 
kingdoms of this world were his; that he claimed 
and did actually exercise the right of dethroning 
kings, and was endeavoring, by every means in his 
pov/er, to place himself in a position to exercise, at 
no distant period, the right of deposing our presi- 
dents, state governors, and absolving oar people 
from their oaths of allegiance. Should not that 
sect, as such, be instantly crushed ? Should it not, 
at least, be forbidden to interfere, directly or indi- 
rectly, with our civil institutions ? Let us suppose 
the prophet Joe Smith to hold the seat of his gov- 
ernment in Europe, and that Europe was full to 
overflowing with Mormons ; Ave may further sup- 
pose this great high priest to have thousands and 
millions of subordinate officers, sworn and bound 
together by oaths cemented in blood, to sustain 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 33 

him as their sovereign ruler, by every means which 
human ingenuity could devise, and at every sacri- 
fice of truth and honor. Suppose, further, that 
this high priest was annually sending thousands 
of his subjects to this country, with no other view 
but to possess your fertile lands and overthrow 
your government, and substituting in its place that 
of this foreign priest and tyrant ; would you per- 
mit them to land upon your shores ? Would you 
allow them to pollute the purity of your soil ? 
Would you allow their unclean hands to touch 
the altars of your liberty? Would you not first 
msist that they should purge themselves from the 
sins and slime of Mormonism, and free themselves 
from all further connection with this monster man, 
and would-be God, who impiously demanded blind 
obedience and unqualified homage ? I could an- 
swer for you, but I will not ; the history of your 
republic answers for you ; the movements, which 
are now going forth from one end of your country 
to the other, are answering for you, in tones too 
solemn and too loud to be drowned by the roaring 
of Popish bulls. But it is much to be feared that 
Americans do not yet fully understand the dangers 
to be apprehended from the existence of Popery 
in the United States. It is difficult to persuade a 
single-hearted and single-minded republican, whose 
lungs were first inflated by the breath of freedom, 
whose first thoughts were, that all men had a nat- 
ural right to worship God as they pleased — that 
any man could be found, so lost to reason, interest, 
and principle, as to desire to barter those high priv- 
ileges, which he may enjoy in this country, for 
oppression and blind submission to the dictates of 
a Pope, or even any body of men, civil or ecclesi- 
astic ; still less can an American believe, without 
2* 



34 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

difficulty, that he who sees the excellence and 
practical operation of our form of government, will 
try to overthrow it, by submitting to any creed, 
to any king or Pope, who requires from him alle- 
giance, incompatible with that which he has 
already sworn to maintain. Nor, generally speak- 
ing, will men do those things. 

While man believes in the moral obligations of 
an oath, he will not easily violate it. While he 
believes that there is an all-seeing Providence, to 
whom alone he is accountable for his actions, he 
will be cautious in committing oifences ; but once 
satisfy a man, that there is, within his reach, a power 
which can pardon his sins, even those of perjury ; 
which can change abstract evil into good, and he will 
stop at nothing. While the pardon of offences is a 
marketable article, it never will want for a purchaser, 
so prone are we to the commission of crime. Let 
man have an adviser, in whom he is taught to 
place unlimited confidence, on whom he looks as 
the representative of his God on earth, and he 
soon becomes his ready tool for good or for evil. 
Such precisely is the position in which ninety-nine 
out of a hundred Roman Catholics are placed. 
They are told by their priests, that, as members of 
society, the first allegiance they owe is to the 
head of their church, the Pope of Rome, and the 
next to the government, dt facto, under which they 
live ; but these well-practised ecclesiastical im- 
postors never forget to add, that the first alle- 
giance, being of a spiritual character, absorbs and 
supersedes the latter"; thus annulling, and render- 
ing the oath of allegiance, which they take to our 
government, something worse than even mere 
mockery ; and hence it is, that very few Catho- 
lics, particularly the Irish, ever read the constita- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 35 

tion of the United States, nor do they require it to 
be read for them. They know not, they care not 
what it is. It is enough for them to believe that 
the oath, wliich they take to support it, is not obli- 
gatory. Of this they are assured by their priests. 
Yet strange, these very priests tell them they com- 
mit mortal sin by becoming Freemasons, or uniting 
themselves with that excellent and benevolent 
association, the Odd Fellows. And why, reader, do 
they do this? Why prevent them from uniting 
with Odd Fellows or Freemasons? Why has the 
Pope recently cursed all Odd Fellows ? Why 
has he sent a bull to this country, cautioning Cath- 
olics against having any thing to do with them ? 
Why have the Romish priests, from one end of this 
country to the other, echoed these curses? Did 
the Pope discover any bad thing in the constitu- 
tion or rules of action of Freemasons or Odd Fel- 
lows? Are these institutions aiming at the over- 
throw of any fixed principles in morals, in religion, 
or in virtue ? No such allegation is made. Why 
then do Popes and priests forbid Roman Catholics 
from uniting with them? It is expressly because 
the Pope knows nothing about those excellent 
institutions. It is because he is aware he can 
make no use of them ; but let those societies 
beware, if they wish to keep their secrets. Th^ey 
should not allow any man to join them until 
he first swears that he is not a Roman Catholic ; 
otherwise some Jesuits will get among them, and 
the next packet will convey their doings to his 
royal holiness the Pope. 

I cannot illustrate more clearly the value which 
foreign Roman priests and their followers put upon 
an oath of allegiance to this government, than 
by stating a conversation which occurred between 



36 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

myself and a Jesuit, the Rev. Dr. De Barth, then 
vicar-general of the diocese of Penns^^lvania, and 
residing in Philadelphia. It took place some years 
ago, and his opinion of the validity of an oath of 
allegiance to this government, is the same now that 
is lield by all Papists. 1 will give it by way of 
question and answer, just as it occurred. 

Question hy Mr. De Barth. Do you intend 
becoming a citizen of the United States ? 

A7isiDer. I believe not, sir. I don't think I 
could conscientiously take an oath of allegiance to 
this government, v/ithout violating that which I 
have taken at my ordination. 

Mr. De B. You are entirely mistaken. Any 
part of your oath of allegiance to this country, 
which may be incompatible with your first and 
greater allegiance to the head of your church, 
cannot be binding on you. 

Ans. I have doubts upon that subject. 

Mr. De B, What ! doubt your superior, sir ? 
This looks badly. It threatens heresy. Have you 
been conversing with any heretics of this coun- 
try? Declare your intentions, sir, to become 
a citizen. Take the oath ; it is necessary you 
should be empowered to hold real estate for the 
good of the church. The church must have her 
property out of the hands of trustees ; in this coun- 
try they are all heretics ; we must get rid of them 
in St. Mary's church. 

This led me into an examination of the alle- 
giance which I swore to the Pope at my ordination. 
I found that I owed him none ; that I was the dupe 
of an early education ; that I owed allegiance only to 
my God and the country which protected my life, 
my liberty, and my freedom of conscience ; and 
without further conversation with this intriguing 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 37 

and debauched Jesuit — as I subsequently found 
him — I became a citizen of the United States as 
soon as possible ; renouncing all allegiance, tem- 
poral and spiritual, to his holiness the Pope; and 
firmly resolved to induce all others, who, like myself, 
bad been the dupes of Popish intrigue, to cut loose 
from them. I determined to support no civil con- 
stitution but that of the United States, and to have 
no one for my guidance in spiritual matters but 
my own conscience and the word of God. 



POPISH BISHOPS AKD PRIESTS ABSOLVE ALLEGIANCE TO 
PROTESTANT GOVERNMENTS. 

I am aware of the difficulty there is in persuad- 
ing Protestant Americans, that Roman Catholic 
bishops and priests teach their people to believe, 
that they, the priests, possess the power of absolv- 
ing them, either from their oath of allegiance or 
any other crime. It is, however, time to speak 
plainly to Americans. It is time to let them know 
that there exists in the midst of them a body of 
people, amounting in number to about two millions, 
who believe in this doctrine, so corrupt in itself, 
and so well calculated to disturb the peace and har- 
mony of society. There is not a priest or bishop 
in the United States who dares deny this ; they act 
upon it every day. It is customary with the 
priests to confess weekl}^, and to forgive each other's 
sins ; and I am sorry to say, from my knowedge of 
them, since my infancy to the present moment, that 
there is not a more corrupt, licentious body of men 
in the world. But I will not be judge, accuser, and 
witness, in this case. I know well that Americans 



38 SYNOPSIS OF POPERT, 

will take the ipse dixit of no man. They are not 
hi the habit of lightly judging any individual or 
body of men, in any case. I will, therefore, lay 
before them the Roman Catholic doctri' - on the 
subject of penance and confession, as t? 5nt by the 
council of Trent, and now believed aid practised 
by Roman Catholics in the United States. I will 
only add, that I have taught these doctrines myself, 
when a Roman Catholic priest, and while groping 
my way through the darkness of Popery. There 
are many now living who heard and received them 
from me, and to whom I have no apology to make 
for the errors into which I led them, except that, 
like themselves, I was the dupe of early education. 
The following are some of the canons of the 
council of Trent concerning penance or confession ' 

" Whoever shall say, that those words of the 
Lord and Saviour : Receive the Holy Ghost ; whose 
sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and 
whose sins you shall retain, they are retained ; are 
not to be understood of the power of remitting and 
retaining sins in the sacrament of penance, as the 
Catholic church has always understood, from the 
beginning ; but shall falsely apply them against the 
institution of this sacrament, to the authority of 
preaching the gospel ; let him be accursed ! 

'' Whoever shall deny that sacramental confession 
has either been instituted by divine command, or is 
necessary to salvation ; or shall say that the mode 
of secretly confessing to a priest alone, which the 
Catholic church always has observed from the 
beginning, and still observes, is foreign from the 
mstitution and command of Christ, and is a human 
mvention ; let him be accursed ! 

" Whoever shall affirm, that in the sacrament of 
penance, it is not necessary by divine command, for 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 39 

the remission of sins, to confess all and every 
mortal sin, of which recollection may he had, with 
due and diligent premeditation, including secret 
offences, and those which are against the two last 
precepts of the decalogue, and the circumstances 
which change the species of sin : but that this 
confession is useful only for the instruction and 
consolation of the penitent, and was anciently ob- 
served, only as a canonical satisfaction imposed 
upon him ; or shall say, that they who endeavor 
to confess all their sins, wish to leave nothing for 
the divine mercy to pardon ; or finally, that it is 
not proper to confess venial sins ; let him be 
accursed ! 

" Whoever shall say, that the confession of all 
sins, such as the church observes, is impossible, 
and that it is a human tradition, to be abolished by 
the pious ; or that all and every one of Christ's 
faithful, of both sexes, are not bound to observe it 
once in the year, according to the constitution of 
the great Lateran council, and that for this reason, 
Christ's faithful should be advised not to confess in 
the time of Lent ; let him be accursed ! 

"Whoever shall say, that the sacramental abso- 
lution of the priest is not a judicial act, but a mere 
ministry to pronounce and declare, that sins are 
remitted to the person making confession, provided 
that he only believes that he is absolved, even 
though the priest should not absolve seriously, but 
m joke ; or shall say, that the confession of a peni- 
tent is not requisite, in order that the priest may 
absolve him ; let him be accursed ! 

" Whoever shall say, that priests who are livmg 
in mortal sin do not possess the power of binding 
and loosing ; or that the priests are not the only 



40 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

ministers of absolution, but that it was said to ab 
and every one of Christ's faitliful : Whatsoever 
you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in 
heaven ; and whatsoever you shall loose upon 
earth, shall be loosed also in heaven ; and whose 
sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and 
whose sins you shall retain, they are retained: by 
virtue of which words, any one may forgive sin ; 
public sins, by reproof only, if the offender shall 
acquiesce ; and private sins, by voluntary confes- 
sion ; let him be accursed ! 

"Whoever shall say, that bishops have not the 
right of reserving cases to themselves, except such 
as relate to the external polity of the church, and 
therefore that the reservation of cases does not hin- 
der the priest from truly absolving from reserved 
cases ; let him be accursed ! 

" Whoever shall say, that the whole penalty, 
together with the guilt, is always remitted by God, 
and that the satisfaction of penitents is nothing 
else than the faith by which they apprehend that 
Christ has satisfied for them ; let him be accursed 1 

" Whoever shall say, that satisfaction is by no 
means made to God, through Christ's merits, for 
sins as to their temporal penalty, by punishments 
inflicted by him, and patiently borne, or enjoined 
by the priests, though not undergone voluntarily, 
as fastings, prayers, alms, or also other works of 
piety, and therefore that the best penance is 
nothing more than a new life ; let him be ac- 
cursed 1 

" Whoever shall say, that the satisfactions by 
which penitents redeem themstilves from sin 
through Jesus Christ, are no part of the service of 
God, but traditions of men, obscuring the doctrine 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 41 

concerning grace, and the true worship of God, and 
the actual benefit of Christ's death ; let him be 
accursed ! 

'• Whoever shall say, that the keys of the church 
were given only for loosing, not also for binding, 
and that therefore the priests, when they impose 
punishments upon those who confess, act against 
the design of the keys, and contrary to the insti- 
tution of Christ ; and that it is a fiction, that when 
by virtue of the keys the eternal penalty has been 
removed, the temporal punishment may still often 
remain to be suffered : let him be accursed ! " 

I must be permitted here to remind Americans, 
that all Roman Catholics are taught lo believe, and 
distinctly to understand, that whatever they confess 
to their priests, is not to be revealed ; nor is the in- 
dividual, who confesses, permitted to reveal what- 
ever the priest says or does to him or her, except 
to another priest. For instance, should a priest in- 
sult or attempt to seduce a woman, and succeed in 
doing so, she dare not reveal it under pain of dam- 
nation, except to another priest in confession, who 
is bound also to secrecy ; and thus, priests, bishops, 
popes, and all females of that denomination, may 
be guilty of licentiousness, — the bare mention of 
which would pollute the pages of this or any other 
work, — with impunity. The priests can first par- 
don the woman, and then themselves, according 
to the doctrines of the infallible church of Rome. 
This is not all. It is not enough that the sanction 
of the church should be given to these enormities ; 
but priests also claim the right of concealing, from 
the civil authorities, any knowledge which they 
may have of crimes against the state as well as the 
power of forgiving them. The following is the 
language of the church upon that subject. Attend 
4* 



42 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

to it felloAv citizens, and tremble at the dangers 
that threaten the destruction of your republic, 
from the introduction of Popery among you. 

"Although the life or salvation of a man. or the 
ruin of the state, should depend upon it, what is 
discovered in confession cannot be revealed. The 
secret o( the seal — confession — is more binding 
than the obligation of an oath." If a confessor 
IS asked, what he knows of a fact communicated 
to him, he must answer that he does not know it ; 
and, if necessary, confirm it by an oath ; and '' this 
is no perjury," says the Popish church, " because 
he KNOWS it not as mail, but as GOD." There is 
Popery for you, in its naked beauty ! If a man 
wishes to murder, or to rob you, he may go to his 
priest, apprize him of his intention, confess to him 
that he will assuredly murder and rob you, or that 
he has done so already, and yet this priest may be 
your next door neighbor, and he will not make it 
known ; and why, reader ? Because he knows it as 
Godj and as God he tells the murderer to come to 
him and he will forgive him. It is not at all im- 
possible but the day may come when this country 
may be at war with Europe. We can easily fancy 
the despots of Europe forming another holy alli- 
ance^ for the laudable purpose of suppressing de- 
mocracy. France, Austria, Spain, Italy, and a large 
portion of Germany and Switzerland, together with 
the HOLY SEE, would necessarily constitute that 
holy junto ; and if so, and war were declared by 
them against this country, what would be the con- 
sequence ? Inevitable ruin ; certain defeat ; not 
caused by foes abroad, but by foes within, leagued 
by the most solemn ties, and bound by the most 
fearful oaths to sacrifice our country, and all we 
value, for the advancement of the Roman church. 



AS IT WAS AXD AS IT IS. 4^ 

That there is a foe in the midst of us, capable 
of doing so, no man acquainted with the doc- 
trines and statistics of the Roman Catholic church 
in this country can deny. 

It has now: — Dioceses, 21; apostoUc vicarate, 
1 ; number of bishops, 17 ; bishops elect, 8 ; priests, 
634; churches. 611 ; other stations, 461 ; ecclesias- 
tical seminaries, 19 ; clerical students. 261 ; literary 
institutions for young men, 16 : female academies, 
48 ; elementary schools, passim, throughout most 
of the dioceses ; periodicals, 15 ; population, 1,300,- 
000. Late accounts carry the population up to 
2,000,000. 

The increase of the Romish church, in this 
country, since 1S36, amounts to 12 bishops, 293 
priests, 772 churches and other stations, 1,400,000 
individuals, and other things in proportion. 

Should the said church go on increasing for the 
next thirty years as she has done for the last eight 
years, the Papists would be a majority of the popu- 
lation of the United States, and the Pope our 
supreme temporal ruler. 

I have stated to you before what the doctrines 
of these two millions are in relation to the power 
of the Pope ; and I repeat it now, and most sol- 
emnly' assure you, that there is not a Roman Cath- 
olic in Europe or the United States Vv^ho does not 
believe that the Pope has as good a right to govern 
this country as he has to govern Italy ; and that he 
is, and of right ought to be, our king. Pope 
Gregory YII. has declared, '* that the Pope alone 
oiight to wear the tokens of imperial dignity, and 
that all princes ought to kiss his feet." There is 
not a Roman Catholic clergyman, whether bishop 
or priest, xA\o does not believe that it is the duty 



44 

of our president, our governors, and magistrates, to 
do the same. 

Bellarmine, one of the best authorities among 
Catholic writers, says, " The supremacy of the 
Pope over all persons and things is the main sub- 
stance of Christianity." Mark that, fellow-citi- 
zens ! That is the belief of Bishop Hughes, of 
New York ; that is the belief of Bishop Fenwick, 
of Boston, and of every other Roman Catholic 
bishop in the United States, as I will soon show. 

Pope Boniface VIII. says, ''It is necessary to 
salvation that all Christians be subject to the 
Pope." Bzovius, an orthodox Roman Catholic 
writer, whose authority no bishop or priest will 
venture to question, says of the Pope — ^ " He is 
judge in heaven, and in all earthly jurisdiction 
supreme ; he is the arbiter of the world." Mosco- 
vius, another eminent Popish writer, informs us 
that " God's tribunal and the Pope's tribunal are 
the same." Pope Paul lY., in one of his bulls, 
published in the year 1557, declares, that "all 
Protestants, be they kings or subjects, are cursed ; " 
and this doctrine is an integral portion of the law 
of the Roman Catholic church, as may be seen in 
the fifth book of the decretals of the council of 
Trent. This is not all. We find in the forty-third 
canon of the council of Lateran, that " all bishops 
and priests are forbidden from taking any oath of 
allegiance," except to the Pope. 

We find in another part of the decrees of the 
council of Lateran, held under Pope Innocent III., 
the following denunciation: — "All magistrates 
who interpose against priests in any criminal case, 
whether it be for murder or high treason, let him 
oe excommunicated." Bear that in mind, Ameri- 



AS IT VTAS AND AS IT IS. 



4I» 



can Protestants ! If a priest murder one of yon, if 
he commit high treason against your government, 
your magistrates dare not interfere, under pain 
of being damned. So says the infallible Roman 
CHURCH ; and so will she act, should she ever ac- 
quire the power of doing so, in this country. 

It is said by Lessius, an eminent Jesuit writer, 
and professor of divinity in the Roman Catholic 
college of Louvaine, who wrote about the year 
1620, and whose authority no Roman Catholic 
dare doubt, under pain of eternal damnation, that 
" the Pope can annul and cancel every possible 
obligation arising from ah oath." This he taught 
to his students in the college of Louvaine. This 
same doctrine has been taught in the college of 
Maynooth, Ireland, where I was educated myself. 
It is taught there at the present day. See the 
works of De La Hogue. 

Judge you, Americans, what safety there is for 
your republic, while you support and sustain 
among you a sect numbering two millions, who 
are sworn to uphold such doctrines as the fore- 
going. The very domestics in your houses are 
spies for the priests. Nothing transpires under 
your own roofs which is not immediately known 
to the bishop or priest to whom your servants 
confess. But you may say, " The confessor will 
not reveal it." Here you are partly right, and 
partly mistaken ; and it is proper to explain the 
course adopted by priests in such matters as con- 
fession. 

If it be the interest of the church, that what is 
confessed should be made public, the priest tells the 
party to make it known to him, " out of the confes- 
sional,^^ and then he uses it to suit his own views ; 
perhaps for the destruction of the reputation, or 



46 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

fortune, of the very man, or family, employing this 
domestic. But it may be replied that Roman Catho- 
lics are good-natured people ; that they ar^ generous 
and industrious. Admitted : I will even go fur- 
ther : there is not a people in the world more so. 
Nature has done much for them, especially those 
of them who are nativ^es of Ireland ; but the want 
of a correct education has corrupted their hearts, 
and imbittered their feelhigs ; they are not to be 
trusted with the care or management of the affairs 
of Protestant families. 

It is not generally known, nor perhaps suspected, 
by Protestant parents, who employ Roman Catholic 
domestics, in nursing and taking care of their chil- 
dren, that these nurses are in the habit of taking 
their children privately to the houses of their 
priests, and bishops, and there getting them baptized, 
according to the Roman Catholic ritual. I state 
this as a fact, within my own knowledge. While 
I officiated as a Roman Catholic priest, in Phila- 
delphia, I baptized hundreds, I may say thousands, 
of Protestant children, without the knowledge 
or consent of their parents, brought to me secretly, 
by their Roman Catholic nurses ; and I should have 
continued to do so till this day, had not the Lord, 
in his mercy, been pleased to visit me, and show 
me the wiles, treachery, infamy, corruption, and 
intrigue of the church, of which the circumstances 
of birth and education caused me to be a member. 
It was usual with me in Philadelphia, in St. Mary's 
church, of which I was pastor, to have service 
every morning at seven o'clock ; and often when 1 
returned home, between eight and eleven, have 
I found three, four, and sometimes six and eight 
children, whose parents were Protestants, waiting 
for me, in the arms of their Roman Catholic nurses, 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 47 

to be baptized. This is a common practice in 
every Protestant country, where there are Roman 
Catholic priests; but as far as my experience goes, 
it prevails to a greater extent in the United States 
than elsewhere ; and I should not be in the least 
surprised, if at this time, in the city of Boston, 
nearly all the infants, nursed by Roman Catholic 
women, are baptized by their priests and bishops. 
Roman Catholic women are unwilling to come in 
contact, even with heretic infants. They believe 
them damned^ unless baptized by a Romish priest. 
There is another fact, iudnectly connected with 
this subject, which is not generally known. It is 
believed by Roman Catholics, that all mothers, after 
their confinement, are to be churched by some 
Romish priest or bishop. This churching is per- 
formed by the repetition of a few prayers, in 
Latin, a sprinkling of holy water, and the woman 
who does not submit to this mummery, is believed 
by any Roman Catholic nurse whom she may 
employ, to be eternally damned, together \/ith her 
child. They go so far as to say, that the very ground 
upon which the unchurched mother walks is ac- 
cursed ; that the very house in which she lives 
is accursed; and that all she says and does is 
accu7'sed. 

So firmly have the Romish priests and bishops 
fastened this belief upon the minds of their dupeSj 
that at this moment in Ireland, and I may venture 
to say in this city of Boston, no Catholic woman 
will leave her bed after confinement, without being 
churched y lest the ground on which she walks may 
be accursed. Until this ceremony is performed, 
none of her CathoHc neighbors will hold any inter- 
course with her. How then can Protestant mothers 
expect otherwise, than that Catholic nurses will 



48 SYNOPSIS CH?-POPERYj 

have their children baptized by priests ! or what 
security can they have that they will not, under 
the direction of priests, try to turn the minds of 
their children from the contemplation of truth, and 
pure gospel light, to the foul sources of Popery and 
superstition ! Look to this, American mothers. 

It may not be amiss in this connection, to lay be- 
fore American Protestants, the doctrine of the Rom- 
ish church upon baptism ; and, lest I may be ac- 
cused of setting down aught in malice, I shall do 
so in the words of the council of Trent. 

Canons of the Council of Trent concerning 
Baptism. 

*' 1. Whoever shall say that the baptism of John 
had the same virtue as the baptism of Christ ; let 
him be accursed ! 

" 2. Whoever shall say that true and natural water 
is not absolutely necessary for baptism, and there- 
fore wrests those words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
as though they had been a kind of metaphor : ' Ex- 
cept a man be born of water, and the Holy Spirit : ' 
let him be accursed ! 

" 3. Whoever shall say that in the Roman 
church, which is the mother and mistress of all 
churches, the doctrine concerning the sacrament 
of baptism is not true ; let him be accursed ! 

'' 4. Whoever shall ^y that the baptism which 
is also given by heretics, in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, with the 
intention of doing what the church does, is not 
true baptism ; let him be accursed ! 

[Here is another of those rules, by Avhich the holy 
Romish church leaves herself room to impose upon 
the public. Can any man believe, can any one 
even suppose a case, where a heretic acts, or intends 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 4§ 

to act, according to the intention of the church 
of Rome ^ The very act of heresy was against 
that church and her doctrines ; and the truth is, if 
the church would speak honestly, or her priests and 
bishops do so for her, all who are not baptized in 
the Romish church, and who are baptized, are 
eternally damned. So thinks, and so teaches, the 
Popish church.] 

'' 5. Whoever shall say that baptism is optional, 
that is, not necessary to salvation ; let him be 
accursed ! 

'' 6. Whoever shall say that a baptized person 
cannot, even if he would, lose grace, how much 
soever he may sin, unless he is unwilling to believe ; 
let him be accursed ! 

^' 7. Whoever shall say that baptized persons, 
by baptism itself, become debtors to preserve faith 
alone, and not the whole law of Christ ; let him be 
accursed ! 

" 8. Whoever shall say that baptized persons are 
free fr'om all precepts of holy church, which are 
°'the^' written or traditional, so that they are not 
bounu to observe them, unless they choose to sub- 
mit themselves lo them of their own accord ; let 
him be accursed ! 

'' 9. Whoever shall say that men are so to be re- 
called to the memory of the baptism wnich they 
have received, that they may regard all the vows 
which are made after baptism as null and void, by 
virtue of the promise already made in baptism itself, 
as if by it they detract from the faith which they 
have professed, and from the baptism itself; let 
him be accursed ! 

'' 10. Whoever shall say that all the sins which 
are committed after baptism, by the mere remem- 
brance ^nd faith of the baptism received, are 
8 



50 SYNOPSIS OF POPFRY, 

either dismissed or become venial ; let him be 
accursed ! 

"■11. Whoever shall say that a baptism, tiidy 
and with due ceremony conferred, is to be repeated 
on him who has denied the faith of Christ among 
infidels, when he is converted to repentance ; let 
him be accursed 1 

'• 12. Whoever shall say that no one is to be. 
baptized, except at that age at which Christ was 
baptized, or in the article of death ; let him be 
accursed ! 

" 13. Whoever shall say that iofants, because 
they have not the act of faith, are not to be reck- 
oned among believers after having received bap- 
tism, and on this account are to be re-baptized 
when they arrive at years of discretion ; or that it 
is better that their baptism be omitted, than that 
they should be baptized in the faith only of the 
church, when they do not believe by their own 
act ; let him be accursed ! 

" 14. Whoever shall say that baptized children 
of this kind, when they have grown up, are to be 
asked whether they wish to have that ratified 
which their sponsors promised in their name when 
they were baptized ; and that when they reply 
that they are unwilling, they are to be left to their 
own choice ; and that they are not in the mean- 
time to be compelled by any other punishment, to 
a Christian hfe, except that they be prohibited the 
enjoyment of the Eucharist, and the other sacra- 
ments, until they repent; let him be accursed ! " 

This last canon, as the reader perceives, expla ns 
fully why Roman Catholics are so anxious for the 
baptism of Protestant children by their priests. It 
gives them the power of compelling those children, 
should they deem it expedient to do so, to profess 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 51 

the Catholic faith, and thereby strengthening her 
power. They try to alienate the children from the 
parents ; or calculating upon that natural affection, 
with which a parent clings to a child, they hope to 
bring ov^er the parent also to the Catholic faith ; or, 
failing in this, they hope to break up those alliances 
of blood which nature has established, and that 
community of interest and feeling, which society 
has sanctioned, and religion and nature have 
blessed, between parent and child. 

A true Papist will stop at nothing to advance the 
power of the Pope, or the interest of the holy 
church. Heretics, by which the reader will under- 
stand all who do not belong to the Roman Catho- 
lic church, are to be destroyed, cost what it will. 
Death, and the destruction of heretics, is the watch- 
word of Popery. Down with Protestant govern- 
ments, kings, presidents, governors, judges, and all 
other civil and religious authorities, is the war-cry 
in Popish countries. They desire neither to live 
nor die with us. They refuse to be laid down in 
the same common earth with us. Need this be 
proved to Americans ? One would suppose not. 
Our intercourse with Roman Catholic countries is 
such., at present, that there can be no longer any 
doubt of this fact. 

Our commercial transactions with Spain, Portu- 
gal, South America, Mexico, and the neighboring 
Island of Cuba, enables many of our people to 
judge for themselves, and say what is now the con- 
dition of Protestants in those countries where 
Popery predominates. Can a Protestant worship 
God in those countries, according to the dictates of 
his own conscience ? He cannot. They are all 
told by their priests, that a Protestant is a thing too 
unclean to worship God until he is first baptizeil 



52 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

and then shrived or confessed by their priests. A 
Protestant cannot even carry his Bible with him, 
into these countries. Many of my fellow-citizens, 
who may see this statement, will bear testimony to 
its truth. When a Protestant arrives at any port 
in a purely Catholic country, his trunks and his 
person are examined ; and if a bible is found in them, 
or about him, it is taken from him. The ministers 
of his religion dare not accompany him, or if he 
does, his lips are sealed, under pain of a lingering 
death. Should sickness lay its heavy hand upon 
him, there is no minister to attend him, no Bible 
allowed him, from which he may quench his thirst 
for the waters of life. Should death visit him, 
there is 710 one to close the eyes of the lonely Protes- 
tant stranger. A good Roman Catholic would not 
touch the accursed heretic, and when dead he is 
not allowed the rights of Christian interment ; 
he must be cast by the wayside, as suitable food 
for the hog, the dog, and the buzzard. How 
many a worthy American have I seen myself, in 
Cuba, cast away when dead, as you would a car- 
rion, not even a coffin to cover him ; and why all 
this ? Because he was a heretic ; because he did not 
believe in the supremacy of the Pope, and the 
infallibity of the Romish church ; and yet those 
inhuman wretches, those libels upon religion and 
humanity, come among us, ask you for lands on 
which to build churches and pulpits, from which 
they curse you and your children ; become citizens 
of your republic, inmates in your families, with 
smiles on their faces and curses in their hearts for 
you. Let not this language be deemed exaggera- 
tion. I have heard it, I have witnessed it, I have 
seen it. And yet Americans, heedlessly fancying 
'hemselves and their institutions secure, refuse 



AS IT Was and as it is. 53 

these, their sworn enemies, and foes of their religion, 
nothing they ask for. Such is the hstlessness and 
apathy of our people upon this subject, that, as far as 
I am acquainted, no appeal has ever been made 
to our government, to ask even for a modification 
of those barbarities, with which our Protestant citi- 
zens are treated, in Roman Catholic countries ; nor 
has there been any effort made to alter our free 
constitution, so as to enable us to retaliate upon 
those Popish monsters, and obtain from the blood- 
thirsty cowards, at the point of the bayonet, those 
common privileges, which are almost among the 
necessary appurtenances of humanity, and which 
even a Pagan would scarcely deny to a fellow- 
being. 

I hold it as undeniable, that even as Protestants, 
we are, at least by implication, entitled by our trea- 
ties of alliance with Popish countries, to far dif- 
ferent treatment from that which we receive ; and 
had the question been considered by our people, 
either in their primary meetings, or through their 
representatives, they would have long since, insist- 
ed upon due protection and respect for the natural 
rights of their citizens abroad. These natural 
rights can neither be sold nor exchanged; their free 
exercise is guaranteed by implication in every 
treaty we make with foreign nations, and cannot 
be violated by them without giving just cause of 
war. 

Let political casuists say what they please, there 
is no principle better established in political ethics, 
than that all international treaties of amity and 
commerce, should be formed, and if formed, should 
be kept, upon principles of justice and reciprocity. 
The same national amity and courtesy, which our 
Protestant country extends to Popish nations and 



54 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



their people, should be extended by them to us 
By national friendship and comity, is not, I appre- 
hend, and should not, be meant or understood, the 
privilege of selling a bale of cotton here or a bag 
of cofiee there. It includes the free exercise of 
the rights of the parties thereto, so far, at least, as 
they are not incompatible with each other, or with 
the general principles of natural or national law. 
The Spaniard, the Portuguese, the Italian, the 
Mexican, or Cuban, may worship his God, the Vir- 
gin Mary, or any saint he pleases, and no American 
will disturb him ; no American will forbid him. 
If he dies, his priests may have him buried whero 
he will. This is as it should be. Man has a nat- 
ural right to worship God ; it is a right implanted in 
his very nature. As well may we say to a man, 
thou shalt not breathe the air of our country, as say, 
thou shalt not worship the God that gave thee birth ; 
and as well also may v/e say, thou sha.lt not 
worship that God except according to the mode 
which we prescribe, as forbid him doing so at all. 
The natural right of worshipping God, or a first 
cause, implies the right of doing so according to 
the dictates of each man's conscience, provided, in 
doing it, we interfere with none of those laws, 
which civilized nations should reverence. This is 
the principle on which we act with Popish coun- 
tries and people, and upon the principle of recip- 
rocal justice, we ought to demand similar treatment 
from them. 

We have friendly treaties with these people. 
Friendly, forsooth ! Can that man or that nation be 
friendly, who forbids us to read our Bibles within 
their territories, or to bury our dead among their 
dead, or to worship God according to the usages of 
our forefathers, or the dictates of our own con* 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 65 

science? Such treaties should rather be termed 
treaties for the abrogation of natural rights of 
AmericcLiis within Popish dorairiions. We enjoy 
no rights there ; and if we have any by impUcation, 
under our treaties, they are impiously wrested from 
us by a wicked rabble of priests and bishops, dis- 
tinguished only for their ignorance, rapacity, and 
licentiousness. 

I solemnly call upon every American citizen, 
who reveres his God, respects his fellow-citizens, 
or values the happiness of his country, to submit 
no longer to Popish insolence abroad, and to allow 
them no rights in this country, which they are not 
willing to reciprocate. If our existing treaties of 
amity with Popish powers are not sufficient to pro- 
test us in the free exercise of our religion, when 
among them, let us break them, let us tear them 
asunder, and scatter them as chaff before the wind. 
They were never binding upon as. They were 
made in violation of natural rights, -which God 
alone could give, and man cannot take away. Call 
upon your government to protect you ; choose no 
man as your representative who will allow Popery 
to flourish in this free soil, and witness the religion 
of your forefathers trampled upon, with impurutyj 
by Papists iu a neighboring country ; and if you 
cannot obtain your rights by law, you will show 
the world that you have, at least, moral and phys- 
ical courage enough to redress your wrongs. 

Let not Papists, who, at the distance of a few 
days' sail from your ports, would deny your brother 
the rights of Christian interment, or the consolation 
of d}ang with his Bible in his hand, dare call up- 
on your aid, to propagate a religion, which incul- 
cates principles worse and more dangerous than 
were ever practised in Pagan lands. 



66 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

Much sympathy is felt and expressed, particu- 
larly iii this state of Massachusetts, where 1 write, 
for some of her colored popiiiatioii, because it is 
deemed necessary, in slave states, to prevent them 
from commingling with their slaves, lest they may 
excite them to dissatisfaction with their condition, 
and uhimately to insurrection. It is deemed a 
matter of sucii magnitude that Massachusetts, iu 
the plenitude of its sympathy, felt herself called 
upon to send an ambassador to South Carolina, to 
protect her citizens, and demand redress for this 
supposed outrage upon her rights. It is not my in- 
tention to enter into the merits or demerits of the 
question at issue between the states of Massachu- 
setts and South Carolina. I will merely state, that 
the former consists in this, viz : by a law of the 
state of South Ca,rolina, every free person of color, 
entering that state, is liable to be imprisoned 
till he leaves the state. This is done by South 
Carolina and some other slave states, as a necessary 
measure of precaution ; but the prisoner is kindly 
treated ; at least, we hear nothing to the contrary ; 
no such complaint is made by Massachusetts. The 
prisoner is allowed the free exercise of his religion ; 
his friends may visit him almost at any hour ; his 
spiritual instructor is never denied access to him ; 
he may have his Bible with him, or any other 
books he may think proper. But this will not satisfy 
the sympathizing people of Massachusetts. They 
call public meetings of their citizens ; threaten to 
dissolve the union ; and declare they will raise a 
sufficient military force to invade South Carolina, 
ind redress this outrage upon a citizen's rights, at 
the point of the bayonet. 

Man is truly a strange being, and various indeed 
are the currents of his sympathies, but still more va« 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 57 

rious and unaccountable are the causes which often 
set them in motion. It is comparatively but seldom, 
that a colored citizen of the North goes to slave 
states ; bat if there should be the least infraction of 
his civil rights, the whole North flies into a pas- 
sion ; and yet this very people of the North can see 
the citizens of their own country, kindred, and 
blood, in a neighboring Popish port of Havana, for 
instance, deprived of all their rights, both conven- 
tional and natural, without a murmur. Not a com- 
plaint is heard in New England, from the son, 
whose father is confined in the dungeons of Cuba, 
not because he is suspected of any intention to cre- 
ate insurrection, but simply because he refused to 
kneel to some wooden image, which a parcel of 
debauched priests are lugging about the streets ; or 
because he expresses his belief that such pro- 
cessions and mummeries are worse than Pagan 
idolatry. 

The American Protestant, who will dare worship 
his God publicly, or even in private, within the 
walls of his own house, unless with closed doors, 
and without the knowledge of the Popish spies 
of the Inquisition, is liable to imprisonment, 
from which, in all probability, he is never to be 
released. If a Bible be found in his house, it is 
burned, and he and his family are cast into jail. 
This is the case in every country where the Popish 
church has power enough to make its religion that 
of the state ; and yet we have treaties of amity 
with these countries. What a burlesque upon 
amity ! what a mockery of friendly relations, with 
a people who deny us the exercise of the natural 
right which every man has, to worship God as he 
pleases ! who compel our fathers, brothers, and our 
sons, to bow the knee, in idolatrous worship, to 
3* 



58 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

wooden images, and particles of bread, which are 
paraded as Gods, through the streets, in Roman 
Catholic countries. Friendly relations, forsooth, 
with a people who consider us damned, and already- 
consigned to perdition! And yet we hear no com- 
plaint in Massachusetts, of cruelties to our citizens; 
nothing is said of the violation of those friendly re- 
lations, secured to us by treaty, and annually de- 
clared by our presidents, in their messages, to exist 
and to be maintained between our people and those 
Popish countries. When we hear of an American 
citizen in Cuba, when we hear of his natural rights 
being trampled under foot, by Catholic governois, 
bishops, and priests, no complaint is made of a vio- 
lation of friendly alliance ; no meeting is called to 
express sympathy for the individual sufferer, or 
indignation against the treacherous government of 
Popery ; no act of our legislature has been passed, 
making appropriations to send ambassadors to these 
neighboring nations, for injuries done to our citi- 
zens ; and yet it is a well-known fact, that where 
one colored citizen of New England is imprisoned, 
for a few days, in South Carolina, there are a thou- 
sand of our enterprising seamen and merchants, con- 
fined in the dungeons of Spain, Italy, Portugal, 
Mexico, and Cuba, at our very door. How long 
will these outrages be tolerated ? A Popish captain 
comes here; the hands before the mast are Papists; 
the ship may have her chaplain, or may have as many 
little gods, and saints, indulgences, scapulas, beads, 
and rosaries, as they please ; they may land, captain, 
crew, sauits, and all, and no one molests them ; but it 
an Ameri-can ship arrives at the very port from which 
the other sailed, her captain and crew are forbidden 
even to carry their Bible on shore ; but should the 
ship have a Protestant chaplain, and that chaplain 



AS IT \^AS AND AS IT 13. 69 

venture on shore, with his congregation of sailors — 
all American freemen — he dare not take his Bible 
with him, or hold religious worship on this Popish 
,soil ; and should this captain, chaplain, or any of 
the crew die, he is not allowed Christian burial, 
unless he can buy the privilege from profligate 
priests, at an enormous, sacrifice of money, and 
after certain purifications effected by holy water, 
and smoking, which they call incense. This is 
what our government calls friendly relations. 

How long shall we be amused by the executive 
messages, annually informing us of receiving "as- 
surances of friendship from Popish countries?" 
Let the people take this subje.ct into their own 
hands ; let them have no alliance, no treaty, no 
commerce with a people, who will deny tfiem the 
right of worshipping God peaceably and respect- 
fully, or who will refuse them the right of burying 
their dead decently and with due solemnity. The 
treaties which are made with Papists begin, on their 
part, with the most solemn avowal of good faith, 
m the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
They assure us of their friendly sentiments towards 
us under this solemn and awful sanction ; but no 
sooner is this promise made — no sooner have they 
pledged their honor, their faith, and all that is holy, 
to support it — than they disregard all those obliga- 
.tions, feeling and believing that they are already 
dispensed with by their church, which teaches 
them to hold no faith with heretics. The priests, 
however, and bishops, more crafty than the mass 
of their people, plead state necessity for withhold- 
ing from us privileges which we give them. This 
is a shallow pretext, and worthy only of the source 
from which it comes, Cafn any case be supposed, 
or any necessity arise, to violate the eternal princi* 



60 SYNOPSIS or POPERY, 

pies of right and wrong, of justice and truth r 
Are moral and national obligations anything more 
than mere dead letters and leaden rules, which can 
be bent by hands strong enongh to do so. and to 
suit their own purposes and designs? 

Suppose a man in private life — suppose further, 
that man to be a Papist — he enters into a treaty of 
alliance and friendship with a Protestant; he calls 
God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to witness 
that he will fulfil his engagement: we can easily 
fancy the Protestant, within the jurisdiction of that 
Papist, reading his Bible, without interfering or 
any way molesting the individual within whose 
jurisdiction he is. Let us imagine this Protestant 
seized by the Papist, thrown into prison by him, 
while alive, and if dead, thrown away as food for 
the birds of pre}-. Would you call this fulfilling 
the obligations of friendship or friendly alliance r 
Would the Protestant ever enter into such a treaty 
of alliance again ? Would not every Protestant 
who witnessed this transaction look upon the Pa- 
pist who committed it, even though he be but a 
private individual, as a bad man, with whom no 
further intercourse ought to be had? Assuredly, 
he would. But let it be borne in mind, that ac- 
tions do not change their nature ; "immutable prin- 
ciples are always the same ; they do not change with 
the paucity or number of actors : what is bad in 
an individual will be wrong in a nation, and in 
every individual of that nation. The only differ- 
ence is, that an act of perfidy and bad faith in a 
nation is, if possible, worse in itself, and infinitely 
more mischievous, than if committed by an in- 
dividual. 

Our political sophists may deny this, and gloss 
over the ccuduct of Popish governments towards 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 61 

our citizens while among them ; but they cannot 
long hide from our people that the eternal laws of 
truth cannot be violated : nor can their meaning be 
frittered away by the technicalities of treaties. 
Trnth, whether moral or political, is like the sun 
of heaven; it is but one — it is the' same every 
where. It is sometimes clouded, it is true, but 
these clouds are momentary ; they pass away, and 
it shines again in its native brilliancy. The day 
is fast coming, and I trust it has even arrived, when 
Americans will see, that by a treaty of amity is not 
meant the right of shipping our commodities to 
Popish countries, and receiving theirs in exchange ; 
reserving to one party the privilege of denying to 
the other a right dearer to him than all earthly 
considerations ; and which is guarantied to him by 
the eternal laws of God, while the other party is 
under no restraint as to the full and free enjoyment 
of those natural rights. And here, I beg leave to 
say to our legislators, that Protestant Americans, 
upon due reflection, will not long give their assent 
to any treaty, nor form an alliance with any coun- 
try, which shall deny them the free exercise of 
their religion. 

The American, who will enter into an alliance 
with the Pope, or a Popish country, explicitly 
agrees to deny his God, and forswear the religion 
of his forefathers. He virtually consents that the 
party with which he makes the agreement shall be 
privileged to curse and damn him, his country, his 
religion, and his rights. This needs no proof. 
Look around you, and see your citizens in Mexico 
denying their God by submitting to Popish laws, 
which forbid their worship according to the dic- 
tates of their conscience. Were your puritan fore- 
fathers to witness this, would they not exclaim, 



62 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERT, 



" Shame upon our degenerate sons, who will barter 
their religion and their birthright for the petty 
advantages of commerce ! " No wonder that Popish 
priests and Popish presses should call Americans 
coioards and the sons of cowards. Who but a 
coward, and what but a nation of cowards, would 
surrender that liberty of conscience which their 
forefathers purchased at the price of blood? This 
Americans do by assenting to a treaty with any 
country which does not guarantee to them the 
right of worshipping God without hindrance. 
Americans will not forget, though they cannot 
too often be reminded of the fact, that those coun- 
tries where their feelings are thus outraged are, de 
facto^ governed by the Pope and his vicegerents, 
whose actions for centuries back have provejj them 
to have been no other than conspirators against the 
improvement and happiness of the human race. 
What were the means by which they conducted 
their governments ? The very same that they are 
now in every Roman Catholic country, all over 
the globe ; craft, dissimulation, oppression, extortion, 
and above all, fire, faggot, and the sword. There 
is not an article of their faith, nor a sacrament of 
their church, which is not enforced by curses, as I 
shall show in the sequel. These vicegerents of 
the humble Redeemer have the insolence to ape 
the very thunders of heaven. Histor}'- informs us, 
that their robes have been crimsoned in blood. 
Their images of saints, some of which I have seen 
in Mexico, made of solid gold, and many of them 
six feet high and well-proportioned, were wrung 
from the poor. 

Many of those countries, which they now pos- 
sess, and where God and nature have scattered 
;5lenty, have been made barren by Popish avarice 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 63 

and the licentiousness of its priests. The fields, 
which laughed with plenty, they have watered with 
hunger and distress. They found the world gay 
with flowers, and with roses : they dyed it with 
Mood. They and their doctrines acted upon it 
like the blast of an east wind. Popery, since the 
eighth century in particular, has been what a pes- 
tilence or conflagration is to a city. 

Come with me, in imagination, to Italy, and 
judge for yourselves. Pass on with me, to Spain, 
Portugal, South America, and you will sec that I am 
not exaggerating. You will find that I have only 
told truth, but not the whole truth. No tongue can 
tell it. We have no language to express it. I will 
give you a few instances of the fruits of Popery in 
the neighboring island of Cuba. What I am about 
stating has come under my own observation ; and 
is, besides, a matter of record, and accessible to 
many. The natives of Cuba pay fifteen millions 
per annum to her most Christian Majesty, the 
queen of Spain. .They support an army of sixteen 
thousand men, every one of whom is a native of 
old Spain, kept there for the sole purpose of ex- 
torting this enormous annual tribute. The number 
of priests there is immense. They, too, must be 
supported at the point of the bayonet. These 
priests are known to be the most profligate vaga- 
bonds in creation. And why, it will naturally- be 
asked, should such men be tolerated? Why supply 
them with money to gamble at the faro table, at 
cock-fights and bull- fights ? The reason is plain ; 
they act as spies for the Pope, Avho, in reality, 
manages the government of old Spain, and con- 
trives to draw, from that already impoverished and 
distracted country, the last dollar of a people whom 
God has endowed with every virtue, and a capacity 



64 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

of cultivratiiig them, had not the curse of Popery 
fallen upon them. 

Such is the avarice of the Popish church and 
Popish tyrants, that, if a farmer in Cuba kills even 
a beef for his own use, he must pay the govern- 
ment ten per cent, upon its value. When I was in 
Cuba, the farmer must pay ten and a half dollars 
duty upon every barrel of flour imported into the 
island ; when he might raise, in the field, before his 
own door, the finest wheat in the world, if the gov- 
ernment would let him. Such are but a few of the 
blessings of Popish goverments. Do Americans 
desire this republic reduced to such a state of vas- 
salage as this ? or will you profit by these lessons, 
which experience is daily teaching you ? Wherever 
you turn your eyes, and see Popery in the ascendant, 
you will find it the Pandora's box, out of which 
every curse has issued, without even leaving hope 
behind. It should, therefore, be suppressed on its 
appearance in any country. It should be the duty 
of every good man to extirpate it, and sweep it, if 
possible, from the face of the globe. It is nothing 
better than a political machine, cunningly devised, 
for the propagation of despotism. It is the mas 
terpiece of satanic wickedness. Execrated and 
exploded be this infernal machine ! and thanks 
forever be to that God, who has shown me its in- 
tricacies, in time to save me from becoming what, 
I know of my own knowledge, Roman Catholic 
priests are — hypocrites, infidels, and licentious 
debauchees, under the mask of sanctity and holi- 
ness. Their religion is supported by curses, as 1 
have before stated, and will now prove from the 
doctrines of their own church. The reader has al- 
ready been told, that the Popish church maintains 
:he doctrines that a belief in seven sacraments is 



AS IT WAS AND AS lT IS. 65 

necessary to salvation. These sacraments are desig- 
nated as follows : Baptism, Coiifinnaiion, Eucha- 
rist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and 
Matrimony. And she enforces this by curses. I have 
already enumerated the curses with which she en- 
forces her belief in baptism. The next sacrament 
is Confirmation, enforced by the following eloquent 
cnrses, pronounced by the infallible council of 
Trent : — 

" 1. Whoever shall say that the confirmation 
of baptized persons is a needless ceremony, and not 
rather a true and proper sacrament : or that ancient- 
ly it was nothing else than a kind of catechizing, 
by which the youth expressed the reason of their 
faith before the church ; let him be accursed ! 

"2. Whoever shall say that they do despite to 
the Holy Spirit who attributes any virtue to the 
holy chrism of confirmation ; let him be accursed ! 

"3. Whoever shall say, the ordinary minister 
of holy confirmation is not the bishop alone, but 
any mere priest whatsoever ; let him be accursed ! " 

The next sacrament is the Eucharist. The fol- 
lowing is the doctrine of the Romish church in re- 
lation to this : — 

Decree of the Council of Florence for the Instruc- 
tio7i of the Armenians. 

" The third is the sacrament of the Eucharist, the 
matter of which is wheaten bread, and wine from 
the vine ; with which, before the consecration, a 
very small quantity of water should be mixed. But 
water is thus mixed, since it is believed that the 
Lord himself instituted this sacrament in wine, 
mixed with water : besides, because this agrees 
with the representation of our Lord's passion : be- 
cause it is recorded that blood and water flowed 



66 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

forth from the side of Christ : and also because this 
is proper to signify the effect of this sacrament, 
which is the union of Christian people with Christ : 
for water signifies the people, according to Rev. 
xvii. 15. Ajid he said to Tne, the waters, which 
thou saioestj where the harlot sittethj are peoples, 
and nations, and tongues. 

"The form of this- sacrament are the words of 
the Saviour, by which this sacrament is performed : 
for the priest, speaking in the person of Christ, per- 
forms this sacrament : for, by virtue of the words 
themselves, the substance of the bread is converted 
into the body, and the substance of the wine into 
the blood, of Christ ; yet so that Christ is con- 
tained entire under the form of bread, and entire 
under the form of wine : Christ is entire also under 
every part of the consecrated host, and of the con- 
secrated wine, after a separation has been made. 
The effect of this sacrament, which it produces 
in the soul of a worthy partaker, is the union of the 
person to Christ," &c. 

Canons of the Council of Trent, coiicerning the 
Most Holy Sacratnent of the Eucharist. 

'' 1. Whoever shall deny that, in the sacrament 
of the most holy Eucharist are contained truly, re- 
ally, and substantially, the body and blood, togeth- 
er with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and therefore the entire Christ, but shall say 
that he is in it only as in a sign, or figure, or virtue , 
let him be accursed ! 

"2 Whoever shall say that in the most holy 
sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of bread 
and wine remains together with the body and blood 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that wonder- 
ful and singular conversion of the whole substanco 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 67 

of the bread into the body, and of the whole sub- 
stance of the wine into the blood, only the forms 
of bread and wine remaining, which conversion 
indeed the Catholic church most aptly calls tran- 
substantiation ; let him be accursed ! 

"3 Whoever shall deny that in the adorable 
sacrament of the Eucharist, the entire Christ is 
contained under each kind, and under the single 
parts of each kind, when a separation is made ; let 
him be accursed ! 

" 4. Whoever shall say that the body and blood 
of our Lord Jesus Christ are not present in the ad- 
mirable Eucharist so soon as the consecration is 
performed, but only in the use when it is received, 
and neither before nor after, and that the true body 
of our Lord does not remain in the hosts, or con- 
secrated morsels, which are reserved or left after the 
communion ; let him be accursed ! 

" 5, Whoever shall say either that remission of 
snis is the principal fruit of the most holy Eucha- 
rist, or that no other effects proceed from it ; let 
him be accursed ! 

" 6. Whoever shall affirm that in the holy sacra- 
ment of the Eucharist, Christ, the only-begotten 
Son of God, is not to be adored, even with the ex- 
ternal worship of latria, and therefore that the 
Eucharist is to be honored neither with peculiar 
festive celebration, nor to be solemnly carried about 
in processions according to the laudable and uni- 
versal rite and custom of the church, or that it is not 
to be held up publicly before the people that it may 
be adored, and that its worshippers are idolaters ; let 
him be accursed ! 

'' 7. Whoever shall say that it is not lav\rful that 
the holy Eucharist be reserved in the sacristy, but 
that it must necessarily be distributed to those who 



68 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. 



i are present immediately after the conf sec ration ; or 

j that it is not proper that it be carried in procession 

to the sick ; let him be accursed ! 

" 8. Whoever shall say that Christ, as exhibited 
in the Eucharist, is eaten only spiritually, and not 
also sacramentally and really; let him be accursed! 

" 9. Whoever shall deny that each and every 
one of Christ's faithful, of both sexes, when they 
have attained to years of discretion, are obliged, at 
least once every year, at Easter, to commune ac- 
cording to the precept of holy mother church ; let 
him be accursed ! 

" 10. Whoever shall say that it is not lawful for 
the officiating priest to administer the communion 
to himself; let him be accursed ! 

''11. Whoever shall affirm that faith alone is a 
sufficient preparation for taking the sacrament of 
the most holy Eucharist ; let him be accursed ! 
And lest so great a sacrament be taken unworthily, 
and therefore to death and condemnation, the said 
holy synod doth decree and declare, that sacra- 
mental confession must necessarily precede in the 
case of those whom conscience accuses of mortal 
sin, if a confessor is at hand, however contrite they 
may suppose themselves to be. But if any one 
shall presume to teach, preach, or pertinaciously 
assert, or in publicly disputing, to defend the con- 
trary, let him by this very act be excommunicated." 

Canons of the same Council concerning the Com- 
munion of Children, and in both Kinds. 

'' 1. Whoever shall say that each and every one 
of Christ's faithful ought to take both kinds of the 
most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, by the com- 
mand of God, or because necessary to salvation ; 
let him be accursed ! 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 69 

" 2. Whoever shall say that the holy Catholic 
church has not been induced, by just causes and 
reasons, to administer the communion to the laity, 
and also to the clergy not officiating, only under 
the form of bread ; or that she has erred in this ; 
let him be accursed ! 

"3. Whoever shall deny that the whole and 
entire Christ, the fountain and author of all graces, 
is received under the one form of bread, because, 
as some falsely assert, he is not received under both 
kinds, according to the institution of Christ ; let 
him be accursed ! 

" 4. Whoever siiall say that the communion of 
the Eucharist is necessary for little children be- 
fore they have attained to years of discretion ; 
let him be accursed ! " &c. 

The next in order is Extreme Unction. 

Canons of the Council of Trent concerning 
Extreme Unction. 

" 1. Whoever shall say that extreme unction is 
not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by 
Christ our Lord, and promulgated by the blessed 
apostle James, but only a rite received from the 
fathers, or a human invention ; let him be accursed ! 

"2. Whoever shall say that the sacred anointing 
of the sick does not confer grace, nor remit sins, 
nor raise up the sick, but that it has now ceased, 
as if the gift of healing existed only in past ages ; 
let him be accursed ! 

'^ 3. Whoever shall say that the ceremony of 
extreme unction in the practice which the holy 
Roman church observes, are repugnant to the 
meaning of the blessed apostle James, and that, 
therefore, they are to be changed ; let him be 
accursed ! " 

The sixth sacrament is that of Orders. 



70 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

Canons of the Council of Trent concerning Orders 

'' 1. Whoever shall say that in the New Testa- 
ment, there is not a visible and external priesthood : 
or that there is not any power of consecrating and 
offering the true body and blood of the Lord, and 
of remitting and retaining sins : but only the office 
and naked ministry of preaching the gospel ; or 
that they who do not preach are surel}<not priests; 
let him be accursed ! 

" 2. Whoever shall say that besides the priest- 
hood there are not other orders in the Catholic 
church, both greater and inferior, by which as by 
certain steps, the priesthood may be attained ; let 
him be accursed ! 

^'3. Whoever shall say that orders, or sacred or- 
dination, is not truly and properly a sacrament 
instituted by Christ the Lord ; or that it is a cer- 
tain human invention, devised by men ignorant of 
ecclesiastical things, or that it is only a certain 
ceremony of choosing the ministers of the word 
of God and of the sacraments; let him be ac- 
cursed ! 

'' 4. Whoever shall say that by sacred ordination 
the Holy Spirit is not given, and that therefore the 
bishops say in vain, Receive the Holy Ghost : or 
that by it character is not impressed : or that he 
who has once been a priest may again become a 
layman ; let him be accursed ! 

'•5. Whoever shall say that- the sacred unction 
which the church uses in holy ordination is not 
only not required, but is contemptible and perni- 
cious ; likewise also the other ceremonies of orders; 
let him be accursed! 

'' 6. Whoever shall say that in the Catholic 
church there is not a hierarchy instituted by divine 



▲S IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 71 

appointment, which consists of bishops, priests, 
and ministers ; let him be accursed ! 

" 7. AVhoever shall say that bishops are not su- 
perior to priests, or that they have not the power 
of confirming and ordaining ; or that which they 
have is common to them with the priests ; or 
that orders conferred by them without the consent 
or call of the people or the secular power, are null 
and void ; or that they who have been neither 
duly ordained nor sent by ecclesiastical and canon- 
ical power, but come from some other source, are 
lawful ministers of the word and sacraments ; let 
him be accursed ! 

" 8. Whoever shall say that the bishops, who 
are appointed by the authority of the Roman pon- 
tiff, are not lawful and true bishops, but a human 
invention ; let him be accursed ! " 

Canons of the Council of Trent concerning 
Marriage. 

*' 1. Whoever shall say that marriage is not truly 
and properly one of the seven sacraments of the 
evangelical laws instituted by Christ the Lord, but 
that it is invented by men in the church and does 
not confer grace ; let him be accursed ! 

'■'■ 2. Whoever shall say that it is .lawful for 
Christians to have several wives at once, and that 
this is forbidden by no divine law ; let him be 
acc.rsed ! 

" 3. Whoever shall say that only those degrees 
of relationship and affinity, which are expressed 
in Leviticus, can hinder marriage from being con- 
tracted, and annul the contract ; and that the 
church cannot dispense in any of them, or appoint 
that more may hinder and annul ; let him be 
accursed ! 

"4. Whoever shall say that the Church eould 



72 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

not constitute impediments annulling marriage, or 
that in constituting them, she has erred ; let him 
be accursed ! 

'' 5. Whoever shall say that the bond of mar- 
riage may be dissolved on account of heresy, or 
mutual dislike, or voluntary absence from the hus- 
band or wife ; let him be accursed ! 

" 6. Whoever shall say that a marriage solem- 
nized, but not consummated, is not annulled by the 
solemn profession of a religious order by one of the 
parties; let him be accursed! 

^' 7. Whoever shall say that the church errs, 
when she has taught and teaches that according to 
the evangelical and apostolical doctrine, the bond 
of marriage cannot be dissolved on account of the 
adultery of one or the other of the parties, and 
that neither of them, not even the innocent party 
who has given no cause for the adultery, may con- 
tract another marriage, whilst the party is living, 
and that he commits adultery, who marries another 
after putting away his adulterous wife, or she, who 
marries another, after putting away her adulterous 
husband ; let him be accursed ! 

" 8. Whoever shall say that the church is in 
error when, for many reasons, she decrees that a 
separation may be made between married persons, 
as to the bed, or as to intercourse, either for a cer- 
tain, or an uncertain time; let him be accursed. 

" 9. Whoever shall say that the clergy, consti- 
tuted in sacred order, or regulars, who have solemn- 
ly professed chastity, may contract marriage, and 
that the contract is valid, notwithstanding ecclesi- 
astical law, or vow, and that to maintain the oppo- 
site, is nothing else than to condemn marriage ; and 
that all may contract marriage, who do not think 
that they have the gift of chastity, even though 
they have vowed it ; let him be accursed : as God 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 73 

does not deny this to those who seek it aright, noi 
does he suffer us to be tempted above what we are 
able to bear. 

" 10. Whoever shall say that the married state 
is to be preferred to a state of virginity, or celibacy, 
• and that it is not better and more blessed to remain 
in virginity, or celibacy, than to be joined in mar- 
riage ; let him be accursed ! 

" 11. Whoever shall affirm that the prohibition 
of the solemnization of marriage, at certain times 
of the year, is a tyrannical superstition, borrowed 
from the superstitions of the Pagans, or shall con- 
demn the benedictions, and other ceremonies, which 
the church uses at those times; let him be ac- 
cursed ! 

''12. Whoever shall affirm that matrimonial 
causes do not belong to the ecclesiastical judges ; 
let him be accursed ! " 

The atrocity of the above doctrines, is evident 
to every reflecting mind. Protestants can now see 
for themselves, whether they can safely hold any 
communion with them, or have any confidence 
in Roman Catholics. There is not a Protestant 
Christian in the United States, nor in the world, 
who is not publicly and solemnly denounced, as an 
accursed being, by the Roman Catholic church, 
and by each and every one of its members ; but in 
addition to those curses, which I have enumerated, 
there is another more solemn ; one which is annu- 
ally pronounced against them, by the Pope of Rome, 
and by every bishop and priest in this country. It 
is known by the title of Bulla in cena Domini. 
The curse contained in this bull, is pronounced 
annually at Rome, by the Pope, on Thursday 
before Good Friday. It includes eveiy living 
bcmg who is not a Roman Catholic. All our pres- 
4 



74 Si'NOPSIS OF POPERY, 

idents, ^*ice-presidents, members of congress, gov- 
ernors, magistrates, municipal authorities, oiScers 
of our navy and army, all our Protestant clergy- 
men, whether Unitarians, Presbyterians, Episcopa- 
lians, Baptists, or Methodists: and upon all these, 
without distinction, the Pope of Rome, dressed in 
his royal robes, invokes the curse of Heaven, once 
at least every year. Every priest in the Roman 
church is bound to do the same. It was a part of 
my own duty, and one which I never failed to dis- 
charge, until I protested against the doctrin(3s of 
the Romish church. The Popish priests never 
deemed it prudent to pronounce this curse publicly, 
in the United States, but while I was among them, 
we never omitted to do so privately, on the morn- 
mg of Thursday before Good Friday. It com- 
mences with the following words on the part of 
the Pope : — 

*' We, therefore, following the ancient custom of 
our predecessors, of holy memory, do firstly — ex- 
communicate and curse, in the name of Almighty 
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the au- 
thority of St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own 
authority, all Heretics, Hussites, Wicklifiites, Lu- 
therans, Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, Trinita- 
rians, and all apostates from the faith, and all who 
read their books," &c., &c. This curse includes 
every soul in the United States, v/ho is not a Roman 
Catholic. Will you, Americans give these rnen 
and their doctrines footing among you ? Will they 
longer dare to curse you and your children with 
impunity ? 

In the 6th section of the above bull, the Pope 
and his priests curse all civil powers, who impose 
taxes without the consent of the Roman court. 

In the 12th section, they curse all who maltreat 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 75 

cardinalsj bishops, or priests. You are, therefore, to 
take heed and not quarrel with priests, though they 
insult your wives, or debauch your families. In 
the 15th section, all are cursed, who take away 
jurisdiction from the court of Rome, and prefer 
leaving causes of difference between them and 
priests, to our civil tribunals. 

In the 17th section, all are cursed, who in any 
case appeal to civil tribunals, when the difficulty 
is between Romish priests and citizens. 

In the 18th section, the Pope curses all who take 
away church property. 

In the 19th section, the Pope curses all who, 
without express license from him, impose taxes on 
priests, monasteries, nunneries, or churches. Our 
legislature is sitting while I write. Take heed, 
gentlemen, lest you tax the Roman Catholic bishop 
Penwick, or any of his priests. Be sure you do not 
tax his real estate, his nunneries, or other property. 
If you do, you are doubly damned. 

In the 20th section, the church curses all judges, 
and magistrates, who shall sit in judgment on 
a bishop or priest, without license from the holy 
see. 

In the 22d section, this bull is declared to be bind- 
ing forever, and it is brought to a conclusion by a 
solemn assurance that if any priest shall violate it, 
he shall incur the wrath of Almighty God, and of 
St. Peter and Paul. 

I would again ask Americans whether Roman 
Catholic priests, or bishop, or the two millions of 
followers which they have in this country, are any 
longer to be trusted. I tell Americans, and I pro- 
claim it to the world, that they are spies upon our re- 
public ; they are the sworn foes of our laws, of our 
principles, and of our government; and they are 
united by the most fearful oath never to rest while 



76 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

onr religious liberty lasts, and to use every means 
which ingenuity can devise, and treachery and per- 
jury accomplish, to effect" its overthrow, and substi- 
tute in its place, the religion of the Pope ; a religion, 
if such a name can be given to a most infamous 
system of policy, which for sixteen hundred years 
has deluged Europe in blood. 

I make these assertions, not at random, not upon 
hearsay, not upon the authority of Protestant wri- 
ters, but upon that of Roman Catholic theologians, 
and upon my own personal knowledge. I solemnly 
declare it to be my deliberate opinion, that it is the 
duty of all civil governments on the face of the 
earth, to unite in excluding, from their territories, 
all Roman Catholic priests and bishops7 as their 
deadly enemies, and the sworn transgressors of all 
national law ; and for us in this country to counte- 
nance them, while they have any connection with 
the Pope of Rome, or profess to owe him any alle- 
giance, is nothing short of a species of insanity. 
The bull of which I have spoken, is taught in 
every Roman Catholic college in the United States. 
The students in those institutions are educated in 
the belief that their church, which is infallible, re- 
quires of them to be unfaithful to this heretical 
government, and not only that, but to betray it, 
whenever the interest of the church demands it. 

Every Irish Roman Catholic priest, who comes 
to this country, is instructed by his bishop, to pull 
down, if possible, the standard of heresy, which he 
is told he will find waving over the United States, 
and erect in its place that of the Pope, which he 
swears to. defend. 

These are the principles of priests and their fol- 
lowers, who are coming amongst you in thousands ; 
whom you have encouraged for the last fifty years, 
until at last, you have emboldened them, by your 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 



mistaken sensibility and mock philanthropy, to say 
and proclaim to the universe, Americans shauH 
rule us. This was their motto, during the last 
presidential election ; a motto devised and blessed 
by those turbulent demagogues and pensioned 
agents of the Pope, in New York. But they 
are not the only Papists who have proclaimed 
that Americans shall not rule them. The same 
has been done in Philadelphia and Boston. 
These men are at the bottom of all the riots, 
tumults, and popular commotions, which have 
occurred in this country for several years back. 
Witness the disturbances in Philadelphia, in 1821 
and 1822, by an Irish bishop, in trying to get 
possession, in the name of the Pope, of church 
property, estimated to be worth over a mil- 
lion of dollars. (I shall refer to this hereafter.) 
Witness the riots in the same city last May, where 
several Americans have been sacrificed to the fury of 
a Popish mob. Witness the proceeding in this city 
of Boston, on the occasion of a nun having made 
her escape from the convent in Charlesto wn, to avoid, 
I have no doubt, what delicacy forbade her to men- 
tion. Other causes were assigned for her escape, and 
some were weak enough to deem them sufficient ; 
but from my own knowledge of convents, there can 
be no doubt of the real cause of the escape of the 
virtuous young lady, of whom mention is made. 

Here is another instance of the morbid and mis- 
taken sensibility of many of our people. A certain 
number of Popish agents have applied to our legis- 
lature to build a jail, which they call a convent, 
in our very midst. To this jail, they attach a 
school, for the education of young ladies, and for 
this ostensible purpose, numbers of older ones are 
kept in the jail or convent, by the Pope's agents. 



TS SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

The young ladies, who are sent to this school, are 
treated with kindness and attention ; every thing is 
done to please, to flatter them, and even to cultivate 
their minds. The interior of the jail or nunnery is 
depicted in the most delightful colors. The hap- 
piness of the inmates is said to be equal to the 
saints in paradise. No opportunity is lost to impress 
on the minds of their pupils, the temporal as 
well as eternal beatitudes of this convent, until, 
finally, the young minds of the scholars become 
perfectly enchanted, and, in the full glow of their 
youthful imagination, they determine to become 
NUNS. This step, too, they are taught to take with 
apparent caution ; they must serve a noviciate, go 
through all the ceremony of wearing a white veil ; 
the old nuns representing to them the happiness 
they are about to enjoy, when they are about to 
assume the black veil. But when this is done, the 
poor innocent victims soon feel the horrors of their 
condition. They are confined to solitary cells, to 
which no one has access but the priests, and thus, 
in our very midst, a free born American citizen is 
seduced from her parents, from her guardians, and 
fellow-citizens, and no one is permitted to go and 
ask her freely how she likes her condition. She is 
confined there with more severity, and watched 
more closely, than any female in a Turkish Seragl- 
io ; and as we all recollect, a few years ago, a Popish 
bishop, with his priests, and some thousands of 
their subjects, viz., Irish Papists, threatened to sack 
the city of Boston, because the people deemed it 
necessary to pull down that synagogue of satan, 
the Charlestown nunnery. I am not an advocate of 
mobs or riots : I would observe the law of the land, 
and see it enforced at every risk ; but there is a point 
at which no man would support even the civil law 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 79 

There are laws founded upon necessity, and the eter- 
nal laws of morality, whicti have a paramount claim 
upon o\.. allegiance. Suppose some hoary-headed 
profligate should obtain a charter to build a house 
on Mount Benedict ; suppose further, he attaches a 
school to it, to be governed by the faded Adctims of 
his former dissipation, with a view of making 
money for himself ; suppose he and they had the 
address to gather around them some of the most 
innocent, lovely, and respectable females in the 
country ; let us even suppose that ninety-nine in a 
hundred of those young ladies left that school with 
unblemished reputation and high accomplishments ; 
and we had that evidence that only one in a hundred 
fell victims to the designs of the founders of this 
corrupt institution; who would hesitate to determine 
what should be done with this institution, or this 
nunnery, as Roman Catholic priests would call it ? 
An answer is not necessary. But suppose the 
hoary -headed gentleman should apply to the le- 
gislature to rebuild it, would they do so ? There 
was a time when their acquaintance with Popery 
might have induced them to say aye, if such a reso- 
lution were introduced ; but now that they have 
seen Popery in its native colors, withered should be 
the l^ngue of him who would advance such a 
proposition ; and paralyzed should be the arm of the 
American who would support it. But it may be 
replied, that the Roman Catholic church is differ- 
ent now from what it was in ancient times ; that 
it has essentially changed in its doctrine and in its 
discipline. 

Others may say that Protestants, too, have been in- 
tolerant, and guilty of many cruelties, in the propa- 
gation of their religion. This is freely admitted : 
but there is this wide difference between the two 
religions. The Popish creed inculcates persecution 



80 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

and utter extermination of all who do not believe 
in its doctrines; while on the contrary, the creed 
of the latter has never, and does not now, inculcate 
any other doctrine, than Jesus Christ, and him cru- 
cified. In plain English, the Romish church curses 
all who differ from her ; while the Protestant 
church blesses all, though they may be in error, 
and sincerely prays for their conversion. The spirit 
of the latter breathes nothing but love, joy, peace, 
and good will to mankind : that of the former, mal- 
ice, hatred, ill will, and persecution. This has 
been her uniform theory from the middle of the 
third century, and as I will now show you, from 
the lips of her own divines, and canonized saints, 
her members have never ceased to reduce it to 
practice. Cyril, who is to this day invoked, and 
prayed to as a saint, taught and practised the above 
Romish doctrine. He was bishop of Alexandria, 
in the year four hundred and twelve. There is 
not a Roman Catholic, who is not taught to pray 
to him ; and, of course, they can have no objection 
to my giving him as authority. Whatever St. Cyril 
believed, is believed by Papists now. Whatever 
he did was right, and according to sound doctrine 
consequently as Holy Mother, the church, never 
errs, and never can err, it must be right now. • Let 
us see what this saint has done and believed, in 
his time. Socrates, a native of Constantinople, 
gives the following account of a portion of the life 
of St. Cyril, and other bishops of Alexandria. I 
take it from his ecclesiastical history. 

The bishops of Alexandria had begun, says Soc- 
rates, to exceed the limits of ecclesiastical power, 
and to intermeddle with civil affairs, imitating, 
thereby, the bishop of Rome, whose sacred author- 
ity had, long since, been changed into dominion 
and empire. 



kb ^1 \\ Ab kSU Ao 11 19. 81 

The governors of Alexandria, looking upon the 
increase of the Romish episcopal power as a dim- 
inution of the civilj watched the bishops, in order 
to restrain them within the limits of the spiritual, 
and prevent their encroaching on the temporal 
jurisdiction. But Cyril, from the very beginning 
of his episcopacy, bade defiance to civil power, act- 
ing in such manner as showed but too plainly that 
he would be kept within no bounds. Soon after 
his installation, he caused, by his own authority, 
the churches, which the Novitians were allowed to 
have in Alexandria, to be shut up, seized on the 
sacred utensils, and plundering the house of their 
bishop, Theapemptus, drove him out of the city, 
stripped of every thing he possessed. Not long after 
this, Cyril put himself at the head of a Christian 
mob, and, without the knowledge of the governor, 
took possession of the Jewish synagogue, drove the 
Jews out of Alexandria, pillaged their houses, and 
allowed the Christians — all Papists — who were 
concerned with him in the riot, to appropriate to 
themselves all their effects. This the governor 
highly resented, and not only rebuked Cyril very 
severely, for thus encroaching on his jurisdiction, 
and usurping a power that did not belong to him, 
but wrote to the emperor, complaining of him for 
snatching the sword of justice from him, to put it 
into the hands of the undeserving multitude. 

This occasioned a misunderstanding, or rather 
an avowed enmity between St. Cyril and the gov- 
ernor. With the saint sided the clergy, the greater 
part of the mob, and the monks ; with the gov- 
ernor, the soldiery and the better class of citizens 
As the two parties were strangely animated against 
each other, there happened daily skirmishes in the 
streets of Alexandria. The friends of the gov- 



82 oTNOPSIS OF POPERr, 

ernof, generally speaking, made their party good, 
having the soldiery on their side. But one day, as 
the governor was going out in his chariot, attended 
by his guards, he found himself, very unexpectedly, 
surrounded by no fewer than five hundred monks. 
The monks were, in those days, the standing army 
of the bishops, but are now of the Pope's alone. 
The monks in the service of St. Cyril, having sur- 
rounded the governor's chariot, dispersed the small 
guard that attended it, fell upon him, dangerously 
wounded him, and determined to put an end to the 
quarrel between him and St. Cyril, by taking His 
life. 

The citizens, alarmed at his danger, flew to 
his rescue, put the cowardly monks to flight, and 
having seized on the monk by whom the governor 
was wounded, delivered him into his hands. The 
governor, to deter others, caused the monk to be 
put to death. But St. Cyril, partly to reward the 
zeal which the monk had exerted in attempting to 
assassinate his antagonist, caused him to be honored 
as a holy martyr. The partizans of St. Cyril, en- 
raged at the death of the monk, and under the 
advice of this Romish saint, determined to revenge 
ic ; and the person they singled out among the 
friends of the governor to wreak their rage and 
revenge on, was one who. of all the inhabitants of 
Alexandria, deserved it the least. This was the 
famous and celebrated Hypatia, the wonder of her 
age for beauty, for virtue, and knowledge.' She 
kept a public school of philosophy in Alexandria^ 
where she was born, and her reputation was so 
great, that not only disciples flocked from all parts 
to hear her, but the greatest philosophers used to 
consult her as an oracle, with respect to the most 
abstruse points of astronomy, geometry, and the 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. S3 

Platonic philosophy, which she was particularly 
well versed in. Though she was very beautiful, 
and freely conversed with men of all ranks, yet 
they were so awed by her known virtue and mod- 
esty, that none ever presumed to show, in her pres- 
ence, the least symptom of passion. The gov- 
ernor entertained the highest opinion of her abili- 
ties, often consulted her, and in all perplexed cases 
governed himself by her advice. As she was the 
person in Alexandria whom he most valued, St.. 
Cyril and his friends, to wound him the more 
effectually, entered into a conspiracy to destroy 
this beautiful and innocent lady. 

This barbarous resolution being taken, as, she 
was one day returning home in her chariot, a band 
of the dregs of the people, encouraged and headed 
by one of St. Cyril's priests, attacked her in her 
chariot, pulled her out of it, and throwing her on 
the ground, dragged her to the great church called 
Cagsareum ; there they stripped her naked, and 
with sharp tiles, either brought with them or found 
there, continued cutting, tearing, and mangling her 
flesh, till nature, yielding to pain, she expired under 
their hands. Her death did not satisfy their rage 
and fury. They tore her body in pieces, dragged 
her mangled limbs through all the streets of Alex- 
andria, and then gathering them together, burned 
them. Such was the end of the famous Hypatia, 
the most learned person of the age she lived in ; 
but she was not a Roman Catholic. Can you, 
Americans, believe that this very Cyril is now a 
saint in the Roman Catholic church; that he is 
daily prayed to, honored, and worshipped by Pa- 
pists ? Can you believe that the Catholics whom 
you employ in your houses, the nuns to whom you 
intrust the education of your children, daily invoke 
thp. intercession of this murderous Gvril ? 



84 SYNOPSIS OF PO i^it/, 

And think you, fellow-citizens, that the spirit of 
the Popish bishop, Cyril, has died with him, or 
that the church, which approved of his conduct, 
would refuse to sanction a similar act at this day ? 
If you do, you are mistaken. Was the conduct 
of Cyril ever censured by the church? Were the 
murders and atrocities which he committed, aiad 
caused to be committed, even disapproved by the 
holy mother ? If they were, I would ask at what 
council was it done ? Where and when was such 
a council held ? Who was the presiding Pope ? 
The fact is, so far from incurring the displeasnre 
of the Romish church, this notorious Popish mur- 
derer of Jews and heretics was canonized and 
sainted; and similar distinctions would be now 
awarded to him who would commit similar crimes, 
if his holiness the Pope deemed it prudent to have 
such crimes committed. 

We saw an instance of the spirit which act- 
uated Cyril, some years ago, in this city, when, 
in the case of the Ursuline Convent, to which I 
have already referred, every Papist within fifty 
miles of Boston, who was able to bear arms, volun- 
teered his aid to his bishop, in taking vengeance 
upon our citizens, merely because they would not 
sanction among them the existence of a house, 
called a nunnery, and used as a jail, for the con- 
finement of some of our most virtuous females, 
against their will. Had Miss Reed, who escaped 
from that den of profligacy, been caught by her 
Popish pursuers, and vv^ithout the knowledge of our 
citizens, what would have been her fate ? She 
might not have been torn to pieces, as Hypatia was, 
but her torments would not have been less cruel. 
She would have been kept upon her bare knees, 
perhaps ten hours in the twenty-four, for months. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 85 

She would be obliged to pray to the same St. 
Cyril, and a strii-^ of such vagabonds, for the re- 
mission of her sins. She would be compelled to 
kiss the ground and lick it with her tongue, at 
stated intervals, and bread and water her diet, until 
the zeal of her holy confessors was perfectly satis- 
fied. And if those who aided her escape were de- 
tected, what would have been their fate ? Thanks 
to our republican government, they could not be 
punished in this country ; but had they committed 
the deed under a purely Catholic government, the 
infallible church would consign them to the inqui- 
sition, and have broken them upon the rack. 

This is the church, and her members are the men, 
whom you are countenancing amongst you. The 
Romish church never surrendered the right which 
she once claimed of destroying heretics. She only 
suspends it for the moment, until her strength and 
numbers shall enable her to enforce it. But there 
are some who will not believe this, especially 
when Catholic priests and bishops deny it. Many 
Protestants, who are natives of this country, 
and unacquainted with Roman Catholic doc- 
trines, will not believe it. Many, even, of our 
Protestant clergymen will scarcely believe it ; such 
is the craft and consummate falsehood of priests and 
bishops, that I have never met with one Protestant 
who entertained the most remote idea that keeping 
no faith with heretics, and persecuting them to 
death, formed any portion of the doctrine of the 
church of Rome. 

This is owing to the fact of their being born in 

a ft-ee country, at a distance from the seat of Rom- 

ih power, and their having little access and no 

acquaintance with the standard works of Popery. 

Many, even, of the native born Americans, who 



86 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

have becorme Roman Catholics, know little or 
nothing of the doctrines of the church into which 
they have permitted themselves to be seduced. I 
will hazard the assertion, that there are not ten lay 
members amongst them, in the United States, who 
have read the works of Belarmine, the canons, or 
decrees of the various councils that have been held 
in the Popish church, or even the corpus juris ca- 
nonid, containing the decrees of the council of 
Trent. 

If the writings of De La Hogue, used in the 
college of Maynooth, Ireland, or the works of An- 
toine or Den, taught in that college when I was a 
student there, were thoroughly read, and the doc- 
trines contained in those standard works of Popery 
understood, there is not a moral man living who 
would not shun the church of Rome, as a thing 
too unclean, too impure, too licentious, too wicked, 
too corrupt, and of too persecuting a character to 
be allowed to exist at all. This their priests well 
know ; and, having recently discovered that a few 
copies of Den's " Theology" had found their way 
into this country, they have the unblushing effrontery 
to deny that his work was ever approved of by the 
church, or was ever received as such in any college 
in Ireland. I studied in the college of Maynooth, 
and have read speculative theology under Dr. De La 
Hogue, and moral theology under Dr. Antoine, in' 
the same class with several priests now in thip 
country, and among other works which we read m 
that class was the " Moral Theology " of the Rev 
Peter Den ; especially his treatise de Peccatis. 

I have the pleasure of an acquaintance with 
some native Americans who are become Roman 
Catholics. They are men of honor, moral worth, 
and possess highly cultivated minds. They were 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 87 

religious men ; and deeming a connection with 
some church to be necessary, and seeing nothing 
of the Romish church but its seductive and impos- 
mg ceremonies, they united themselves with it, or, 
if they happened to hesitate in joining it, and 
deemed it necessary to consult with Catholic 
priests and bishops, these crafty Jesuits soon fur- 
nished them with Catholic works manufactured 
for such occasions, and unobjectionable to the most 
pious Christian ; taking good care, at the same 
time, to keep out of their way such works as I 
have alluded to, from which they may learn that 
there is no religion in the Popish church, and 
that it is no more than a political machine, devised 
for the suppression of republicanism, knowledge, 
and the liberties of man. 

Let us pass over the time which intervened be- 
tween the fourth and twelfth centuries. The his- 
tory of the Popes and the Romish church, 'during 
that period, is replete with crimes committed by 
Popes, and atrocities sanctioned by the church, \ 
the bare mention of which humanity shudders 
The very earth is almost saturated with the blooa 
which Popish despots caused to be shed under the 
mask of religion, but, in reality, for the advance- 
ment of their own temporal power. 

I will now show that the spirit of Cyril had not 
died with him. During the reign of Pope Inno- 
cent III., that holy pontiff discovered that there 
was, in the province of Narbonne and in several 
other provinces of the south of France, a religious 
sect, called the Albigenses, who presumed to differ 
from the Romish church, and had the audacity to 
believe that the Bible was the only rule of faith. 
They rejected the external rites of the Romish 
church, except baptism and the Lord's supper. 



88 



SlfNOPSIb OS FOPERY, 



They had no faith in images, indulgences, and 
other such semi-pagan mummeries. Auricular 
confession and the forgiveness of sins by man they 
rejected as impious. They looked upon nunneries 
as places of sin, instituted by priests, as a sort of 
substitute for the marriage of the clergy. They 
demolished such of them as were in existence 
among them, and declared the marriage of the 
clergy as lawful and honorable. They scouted at 
the idea of the temporal jurisdiction of the Pope 
over the nations of the earth, and looked upon him 
as emphatically the Man of Sin. 

These crimes, of course, were not long over- 
looked by the infallible church ! They were here- 
sies. These people were heretics, and the holy 
mother, in the plenitude of her affection for her 
strayed children, determined that they should be 
exterminated. But how was this to be done? 
The holy father, Pope Innocent III., was not 
*^.ong in determining. He sent two spies amongst 
them, of the names of Guy and Regnier. These 
were Monks, whose hands Avere already stained 
w^th blood. They were empowered by the Pope, 
to use their own discretion in checking the her- 
esy of the Albigenses by fire, sword, faggot, or 
the inquisition, which employed all those mear? 
upon such occasions. 

The Albigenses however, were so numerous 
their lives so pure, so chaste and correct, that 
this was not easily accomplished ; and his holiness, 
had to preach a crusade against them, and pub- 
lished a bull addressed to all the authorities ol 
southern France, declaring th°m accursed and ear- 
comwunicated^ and giving absolution to all who 
should murder them and take possession of their 
property. Here are the words of the bull. "Ac- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. S9 

cording to the canonical sanctions of the holy 
fathers,, no faith ought to be kept with those 
who do not keep faith with God, or are separated 
from the communion of the faithful" — Papists. 
'' We release, by our apostolical authority, all 
those who deem themselves bound to them by any 
oath, either of alliance or fealty ; we permit every 
Catholic man to seize their persons, to take their 
lands, and keep them for the purpose of extirpa- 
ting heresy." 

Here, xlmericans, is a specimen of true, genuine 
Popery, as Innocent expresses it, '• sanctioned hy 
the canons and holy fathers of the RowAsh 
chiirch.^^ People of New England, what think 
you of it ? Bear in mind that this is not the act of 
a few fanatics ; it is not the belief of a few zeal- 
ots. If it were, it would be wrong to charge it to 
the Romish church. All denominations have had 
among them fanatics ; but the extravagances of a 
few individuals are not chargeable to the body to 
which they might have belonged. Even our New 
England Presbyterian forefathers had among them 
persecutors ; but who, in his sound mind, could 
charge this to the Presbyterian church ? Ther ) is 
nothing in their creed or doctrines which sane* ons 
the persecution of those who differ from thenr and 
there the Romish church differs from all others. 
The persecution and destruction of heretics, and 
the confiscation of their property, is an integral 
part of the Roman Catholic faith, and the watch- 
word of Papists. 

The crusade against these unfortunate Albigen- 
ses commenced its march about the year 1209. 
Indulgences were offered to all who would unite 
in the war, and history informs us that the Pope 
and his vassals in the church raised an army of 



90 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

monks and pious Papists, amounting to between 
three and five thousand men, who were to serve 
for forty days ; at the termination of which, the 
Pope, in one of his heavenly transports, saw that 
'' every one of the sect of the Albigenses should be 
massacred." To this army his holiness caused to 
be added, by an offer of indulgences, multitudes 
of peasants, with scythes and clubs, who were to 
be under the command of monks, and whose pecu- 
har duty it was, to slaughter the wives and chil- 
dren of these heretics^ while their husbands and 
fathers were engaged in the field with their 
adversaries. Horrible ! Yet this is a true picture 
of what has been, and what will he in this country, 
at some future day, should Popery gain the ascen- 
dancy. 

It is much to be lamented that the Christian 
League, as it is termed, had not looked to this, 
in place of going abroad in search of objects 
worthy of their philanthropy. They seem to me to 
have acted like a man who, while his jwn house 
is in a blaze, runs out to see if there be any of 
his neighbors' houses on fire, and leaves his own 
to smoulder into ruins. Assuredly, such a man 
would not be deemed prudent, nor should he even 
be considered sane. 

Far be it from me to think or speak disrespect- 
luiiy of the pious and reverend gentlemen who 
compose that league ; but their solicitude for the 
N-relfare of a foreign country and a foreign people 
appears to me strange, when all their charities are 
much more needed at home. They desire the 
suppression of Popery, especially in Italy, where 
it is kept alive by Austrian bayonets and Popish 
bulls, and where it will live until those bayonets 
are broken and those bulls are burned. They can 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 91 

no more suppress Popery in Italy, than they could 
confine a fire with a flaxen band. 

The continuance of Popery depends upon this 
country alone. Extinguish it in the United States, 
and it dies every where. - The old world is sick of 
it ; it has cursed it long enough. It is for us alone 
to say whether it shall live or die. Americans 
alone can sound the death knell of Popery ; and, 
if this Christian League will unite their energies 
and bring them all to bear, in excluding Popery 
from the United States, they will be conferring a 
olessing, not only upon this, but upon the old world. 

But to return to our subject. Cruel, beyond 
measure, were the sufferings of the Albigenses, a 
few instances of which I beg to lay before my 
readers, as specimens of Popish charity and their 
mode of fulfilling that holy commandment, " Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." When the 
Pope's army arrived at a place called Beziers, the 
citizens were, of course, alarmed. The Pope's 
legate sent many messengers among them, advising 
them to give up such heretics, with their wives 
rind children, as continued obstinate among them. 
They replied in the following words — ^'-Rather 
than he base enough to do ivhat is required of us, 
and, abandon our religious principles, we will eat 
our children first, and our wives will die with us,^^ 
On receiving this answer, the Pope's army, or 
rather incarnate devils, rushed upon them so sud- 
denly, and in such numbers, that they had to 
surrender, after little or no resistance. 

There were many among them who were not 
heretics, but, seeing the injustice done to their fel- 
low-citizens, and knowing the pmity of their lives, 
united with them in resisting oppression. Some 



92 SYNOPSIS 

of the most merciful of the Pope's army, entertain- 
iog scruples as to what should be done to those who 
were not heretics and happened to fall into their 
hands, deemed it a duty which they owed to holy 
another, to consult the Pope's legate upon this oc- 
casion ; and what, Christian reader, think you was 
the reply of this representative of the Roman 
Catholic church 7 What was the answer of this 
imbodiment of Popery ? It was what it would be 
this day, under similar circumstanaes. — " Kill them 
all; the Lord will knoio his oionl^'' At this an- 
swer, the bells rung, by order of this legate, 
and never ceased to toll, until fifteen thousand 
were butchered upon the spot, according to the ac- 
count given by the legate himself; although a 
contemporary historian, named Bernard Itier, and 
much better authority than this blood-thirsty legate, 
informs us that thirty-eight thousand were slaugh- 
tered in cold blood. 

During this time. Pope Innocent and the infalli- 
ble church were not idle in other parts of France. 
Wherever heresy existed, or heretical blood was to 
be shed, there were to be found the representatives 
of the holy church, until not a vestige of the Prot- 
estant doctrines of the Albigenses was to be seen. 
Nearly all its ministers and its followers suffered the 
most cruel deaths, and their church was drowned 
in the blood of its defenders. But the man of sin 
being still apprehensive that some vestige of Prot- 
estantism might remain, or that the life of some 
unfortunate member of the Albigenses might have 
escaped, the Popish murderers established, in those 
countries, that accursed tribunal, the Inquisition ; 
some of whose members appeared in the guise and 
occupation of farmers, to act as spies among that 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT 13. 93 

ilass of people ; others as merchants, anics, 

&c. To these were added female Jesuits, some of 
whom were shop-keepers, milliners, servant-maids, 
5z>c. ; and, suitably educated, whenever necessary, 
were ready to act their parts well. 

Thus no man was safe. No family, no lady, was 
safe. They dreaded the very air they breathed. 
They knew not when the officers of the inquisition 
would call them from their homes, their children, 
tlieir husbands, and their wives, to be cast into 
the dungeon of the inquisition, without knowing 
their offence, or who accused them. 

This was Popery in the twelfth century ; this was 
Popery in the fourth century : and this is Popery in 
the nineteenth century. Americans, are you aware 
that there are Jesuit nuns now in this country ? 
Are you aware of the reasons why they are so 
anxious to get Protestant rather than Catholic 
scholars into their schools ? The reason is this ; 
they are in this country spies upon your actions. 
Your thoughts, your designs, your influence, the 
probable amount of your wealth, and your political 
opinions, are known to your children. These Jes- 
uit nuns worm themselves into your confidence ; 
the young hearts of their pupils are soon laid bare 
to these artful hypocrites ; and before you scarcely 
notice the absence of your children, your domestic 
secrets are known to some Popish agent, who makes 
such use of them as the holy church may direct. 
This is done daily. I make this statement of my 
own knowledge, and I warn you, if you value your 
domestic happiness, or the peace and harmony of 
your children, never permit one of them, male or 
female, to enter a school kept by nuns or Jesuits. 

Prom these observations, the reader must have 
seen that Popery, in its teachings and actions, is, 



94 



and has been, the same always. What, then, be 
comes of the assertions, so frequently made by Ro- 
man Catholic priests and bishops, that the doctruies 
of the church, in relation to heretics, have been re- 
laxed ? Certain it is, at all events, that there has 
been no mitigation in the treatment of heretics 
down to the thirteenth century. Let us come 
down a little farther, and see if any had taken place 
during the thirteenth century. We discover none 
whatever. 

It was during this century, that the ^' Greater 
Excommunication," as it is called, was pronounced 
by the Pope, and the whole church, against all 
who should interfere with the clergy in the exer- 
cise of their temporal or spiritual rights. The 
curse was pronounced, by every parish priest, 
throughout the Papal world, four times a year, — 
Christmas^ E aster ^ Pentecost, and All-Halloics 
day. The curse is in the following words, and is 
now repeated on the same days, by the Pope and 
all the priests and bishops of the Romish church, not 
publicly, — that they dare not do, — but in private. 
" Let them be accursed, eating and drinking, walk- 
ing and sitting, speaking, and holding their peace, 
waking and sleeping, rowing and riding, laughing 
and weeping, in house and in field, in water and on 
land, in all places ; cursed be their heads and their 
thoughts, their eyes and their ears, their tongues 
and their lips, their teeth and their throats, their 
shoulders and their breasts, their feet and their legs, 
their thighs and their inward parts ; let them re- 
main accursed, from the sole of their foot to the 
crown of their heads ; and just as this candle (the 
curser has a lighted candle in his hand, which he 
extinguishes) is deprived of its present light, so 
let them be deprived of their souls in hell." 



AS IT WAa a^maj aS IT IS. 95 

Such is the curse which the Pope pronounced 
against all heretics in the thirteenth century ! and 
however surprised you may be, a similar one is 
pronounced once a year against all Protestants. 
There are many Americans who cannot believe 
that such a curse as the above, has ever been pro- 
nounced against a fellow-being. I have conversed 
with some intelligent Protestants ia this city, who 
doubted whether such an anathema was ever 
uttered, and seemed struck with horror, as well as 
surprise, when I informed them that it was pro- 
nounced against myself in Philadelphia in presence 
of, at least, three thousand people. The reader 
must know, by this, that I am a heretic, and look 
upon the introduction of Popery into the United 
States, as the greatest evil which Providence has 
permitted to fall upon us. Arise, fellow-citizens, in 
the fulness of your power, — every Protestant in 
this country is a heretic, as well as myself. We are 
all annually cursed and damned by a set of Popish 
agents, bishops, and priests ; men who, from my 
own personal acquaintance with them, I know to 
be unworthy of your friendship or your support ; 
who walk your streets with apparent sanctimonious- 
ness, but whose lives in private are such as delicacy 
forbids me to mention. 

These men, under pretence of being democrat.^ 
are attacking your liberties with the club of Hei- 
cuies. They are acquiring gigantic force. You 
have recently witnessed the truth of this assertion ; 
they fancied they had strength enough to cut you 
down as the legate of Pope Innocent did the Al- 
bigenses in the twelfth century. They bid defiance 
to reason, argument, and the law of your land ; and 
it grieves me to see every thing yielding to their 
power, as chaff before the wind. But Providence 



yO SYNOPSIS OF lOPERY, 

interposed, and these miserable dupes of Romish 
priests received a check, which, if followed up, 
will have a salutary effect in future. But, I pray 
you, be on your guard ; watch the movements of 
Papists among you : have no confidence in them ; 
have as little as possible to do with them. Trust 
them in nothing which may either directly or in- 
directly involve their religion. I most solemnly 
appeal to our national and state legislatures, to ex- 
clude them from every office of honor, profit, or 
trust, while they have any connection whatever, 
spiritual or temporal^ with the Pope of Rome. 
Believe them not, when they tell you that their 
allegiance to the Pope is only spiritual. I under- 
stand what they mean by spiritual allegiance. 

From what has been stated, it is clear that no mod- 
ification had taken place in Popish pretensions dur- 
mg the thirteenth century, neither had the church 
relaxed one iota in her persecutions of heretics. On 
the contrary, her cruelties increased-the declarations 
of Popish priests to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Let us now see what has been the conduct of 
the Popish church towards heretics, from the latter 
end of the thirteenth century to the conclusion ot 
the fourteenth. 

How was the illustrious John Wickliffe, pro- 
fessor of divinity in Oxford, treated by the church 
of Rome, during the reign of Boniface IX. But 
let us first see what the crimes of Wickliffe 
were, for which he had been so severely punished 
by the holy Roman church. The illustrious and 
good Wickliffe, the founder of the Reformation, 
whose very name every Christian venerates, main- 
tained, 1st, That the Scriptures contain all truths 
necessary to salvation ; 2d, That in the Scriptures 
only, is to be found, a perfect rule of Christiari 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 97 

practice ; 3d, He deuied the authority of the Pope 
in temporal matters ; 4th, He maintained that the 
Pope was the Man of Sin, the son of perdiiioji, to 
which St. Paal alluded, "sitting as God in the 
temple of God." As soon as the opinions of Wick- 
liffe were ascertained, Gregory XL, the ruling 
Pope, addressed a full to the primate of England, 
ordering him to have Wickiiffe arrested and impris- 
oned, until he received further instructions. 

The popularity of Wickiiffe was such, that this 
step was considered dangerous ; and we find that 
nothing further was done to this eminently pious 
man, than banishing him from the university of 
Oxford into private life, where he died in peace, and 
went to his grave with the blessings of the good 
and the virtuous. But this did not satisfy the 
Pope, nor the infallible church. O, no. The holy 
mother never forgives a heretic, dead or alive. As 
soon as Wickiiffe departed this life, in the sixty-first 
year of his age, the church and Papists exhibited 
the wildest symptoms of joy. One of their writ- 
ers, in giving an account of his death, uses the fol- 
lowing language : " On the day of St. Thomas, 
the martyr, that limb of the devil, enemy of the 
church, deceiver of the people, idol of heretics, 
mirror of hypocrites, author of schism, sower of 
hatred, and inventor of lies, John Wickiiffe, was, by 
the immediate judgment of God, suddenly struck 
with a palsy, which seized all the members of his 
body, when he was ready to vomit forth his bias 
phemies against the blessed St. Thomas, in a ser- 
mon which he had prepared to preach that day ! " 

But holy mother was not yet satisfied. She had 
not the felicity of hanging Wickiiffe ; her ears 
were not delighted with his groans upon the rack ; 
5 



98 SYNOPSIS or POPERT, 

she did not hear his flesh hissing amid the flames 
of the faggot, nor his bones breaking upon the 
wheel; she mast, however, have all the revenge 
left to satiate her malice. Thirty years after the 
death of Wickliff'e, the infallible council of Con- 
stance, at which the Pope presided, passed an order 
that the body and bones of John Wickliff'e, if they 
might be known and discerned from the bodies of 
faithful people — Papists — should be taken from 
the ground and thrown far away from the burial 
of any church, according to the canon laws and 
decrees. 

This decree was not put in execution for thirteen 
years afterwards. His grave was then opened and 
his body disinterred with great solemnity, and in the 
presence of the Catholic bishop of Lincoln, it was 
piTblicly burned, and the ashes thrown mto a neigh- 
bormg rivulet. But the indignities offered to 
Wickliff'e, while living, and after his death, were 
not sufficient to appease the malice of Papists. 
Blood, and blood alone, could satiate their thirst for 
revenge. His followers were hunted up and mer- 
cilessly put to death. Among the first of his fol- 
lowers, who suff'ered, was Lord Cobham, a noble- 
man, distinguished for his valor, devotion to his 
country, and true piety. His character was with- 
out blemish, and his morals and patriotism un- 
doubted ; but he was a heretic ; he was among the 
followers of Wickliff'e ; he believed in the Holy 
Scriptures. This was crime enough, and for this 
he was excommimicated. Cobham appealed to the 
Pope, but the appeal was refused : he was cited 
again ; he was offered absolution, if he would sue 
for it, and submit to the Popish church. This he 
refused ; the consequence was. he was thrown into 



AS IT WkS AND AS tT IS. 99 

{..rison, from which he escaped and was not retaken 
for nearly four years, he was, however, finally cap- 
tured after a most heroic resistance. 

He might have escaped again, being an over- 
match for his captor, had not a, pious Roman Cath- 
olic wo7nanj while he was nobly defending him- 
self, taken up a stool, and with a desperate blow, 
broken both his legs. In this condition he was 
recommitted to prison until he was sentenced to 
death for his heresy. The sentence was, " that 
he should be drawn from his place of confinement 
through the city of London, to Temple Bar, there 
to be hanged, and burned hanging." The historian 
Bale gives a most affecting account of his exe- 
cution. 

'• On the day appointed," says Bale, "he was brought 
out of the Tower with his arms bound behind him, 
having a very cheerful countenance. Then he was 
laid upon a hurdle as though he had been a most 
heinous traitor to the crown, and so drawn forth 
into St. Giles's field, where they had set up a new 
gallows. When he arrived at the place of exe- 
cution, and taken from the hurdle, he fell down de- 
voutly on his knees, and prayed God to forgive his 
enemies.* Then he stood up and beheld the multi- 
tude, exhorting them, in the most godly manner, to 
follow the laws of God, written in the Scriptures, and 
to beware of such teachers as they see contrary to 
Christ, in their conversation and living, with many 
other special councils. Then was he hanged up 
there, by the middle, in chains of iron, and so con- 
sumed alive in the fire, praising the name of the 
Lord, so long as life lasted. In the end he com- 
mended his soul into the hands of God, and so, most 
Christianly, departed home, his body being re- 
ceived to ashes." 



100 SYNOPSIS OF PUrF:RY, 

Thus was a nobleman, and a noble Cliristian, 
most barbarously put to death for believing that the 
Bible contained God'^s truth ; and therein diflering 
from the Roman church, which teaches that the 
traditions of the fathers, and dreams of monks, are 
of equ.al authority. 

FoUovA^ersof WicklifFe, — and there are many of 
you in this country, who- are an honor to his 
name, — have you ever reflected that there are 
nearly two millions of Papists in these United 
States, who entertain the same belief that the mur- 
derers of Cobhara did ; who believe that you are all 
e.vcommiinicated, as he was. and who, if they had 
the power, would consign yourselves, your wives, 
a.nd children, to the same fate ? and who are taught 
by their church, that, in so doing, they would be 
serving God? Romish priests may deny this. 
They do well. Otherwise, an indignant populace 
would tear them to pieces, or at least banish them 
from this land of freedom. 

But I tell the priest or bishop, who dares deny 
it, that they are liars, — wilful and deliberate liars. 
T too have been a priest, and I solemnly declare to 
the world, and to my fellow-citizens of the United 
States in particular, that to keep no faith with her- 
etics^ but to destroy them, is one of the most solemn 
duties of a Catholic ; and I go further, and state to 
you, that if a bishop or priest denies this, upon 
oath, you are not to believe him ; his church re- 
quires from him to keep no faith with heretics, but 
to destroy and extirpate them. It allows him also 
to deny, under oath, the existence of such an obli- 
gation. 

Do you, followers of WicklifTe, require any proof 
of this? It is a serious charge, and should not be 
lightly made. I therefore refer you to the letters of 



AS IT WAS ANO AS IT IS. 101 

Martin lY., who was Pope iti the year 1417, and 
considered one of the best Popes the Romish 
church ever had. This Pope, in one of his letters 
to the Duke of Lithuania, makes use of the following 
strong and emphatic language. ^^ .Reassured, thou 
siniiest mortally, if thou keep thy faith loith here- 
tics.''^ St. Thomas Aquinas teaches the same doc- 
trine. Innocent VIII., who was Pope in 1484, de- 
clares " tha.t all persons who are hound by any con- 
tract whatever to heretics are at liberty to break it, 
even though they had sworn an oath to fulfil itJ^^ 
You here see, that I have done no injustice to Ro- 
man Catholics, in putting you on your guard 
against them, and charging them with a willingness 
to destroy yourselves, your wives and children, as 
heretics, had they power and opportunity of doing 
so. I am supported by the authority of Pope 
Martin V., and Pope Innocent VIII. ; and though 
in your estimation, those blood-thirsty vagabonds 
may give no weight to my testimony, still it cannot 
fail to be highly satisfactory^ to Papists. Some of 
the Catholics may tell you, that the followers of 
VVickliffe were a seditious people ; that they threat- 
ened to overthrow the civil institutions of the 
country ; that all law and order were set at defiance 
by them ; and that this was the cause of their per- 
secution. This is false in fact — it is historically 
false. 

If the followers of Wickliffe, or Lollards, as they 
were called, were disturbers of the peace ; if their lives 
were seditious, disorderly, and rebellions, why were 
they not indicted, under some statute of the realm, 
made and provided to take cognizance of such crimes? 
Why were they not even accused of such crimes? 
Was the meek, mild, and learned John Wickliffe, 
accused or indicted for disturbing the peace ? Wa? 



102 



it for distLirbiiig the peace, that his venerable bones 
were disinterred thirty years after being deposited in 
the cold grave ? Was it for disturbing the peace, and 
for riotous proceedings, his bones were subsequently 
burned, and their ashes thrown into the next river ' 
Was it for disturbing the peace, the learned and brave 
Cobham was hung in iron chains, by the middle. 

No such accusation has ever been brought against 
these great and good men, or against thousands 
who suffered with them. They were accused only 
of heresy. Papists were their accusers ; Papists 
were their judges; and Papists were their execu- 
tioners. 

But the malice of those blood-thirsty Catholics 
was not even then satiated. It is as fresh now^ as 
it was then. Papists are not content, that hundreds 
of years ago, Wickliffo and his followers should be 
persecuted, and the greater portion of them massa- 
cred and burned. Their memories, also, are objects 
of Popish hati'ed, even to this day on which I 
write. They represent them as enemies of the 
human race. As despisers of chastity and moral- 
ity. You will probably see these charges advanced 
against them in the Popish presses tlu'oughout the 
United States. But recollect, Americans, that age 
does not improve the piety of Papists. The older 
holy inother gets, the harder becomes her heart, 
and the more bitter her virulence. I might satisfy 
you, if necessary, on the testimony of the most 
respectable Protestant writers, that there lived not 
in the world, a people more simple, more pious, or 
virtuous than the Waldenses, or Wickliffites. It may 
be said of them, with truth, ••' qiialis pater tales 
filii.^'' But r will not refer to Protestant authority ; 
knavish, lying. Popish priests may question it ! I 
refer you, for the character of this persecuted 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. ll)3 

people, to an early Popish historian, Florimond — 
History of Heresy, book vii. ch. 7. 

" They " — the Walcleiises — says this writer, 
*' have nothing in their mouths but Christ the Sav- 
iour — they kuow nothing else than Jesus Christ. 
These people read the Bible continually, in such a 
manner that they know all the books of it by heart." 
Horrid people these WickUffites must be, to read 
the Bible until they know it by heart! And as 
these Bible-readiug and Bible-loving people now 
constitute a vast majority'' of our citizens, I call up- 
on them to rise in the full force of their moral pow- 
er, and ward off from themselves and their children, 
the curse of Popery, or the fate of Wickliffe and 
his followers will assuredly be theirs. Many of 
you, Americans, are followers of Wickliffe. You 
believe as he believed ! You live as he lived ! Yon 
love peace as he loved it. Do you wish to con- 
tmue as you are now ? Or will you permit a flood 
,of vile priests, monks, and nuns, to overrun your 
country, and seduce your children from the paths 
of virtue, in which your own example and the 
perusal of their Bibles have taught them to 
walk ? 

I now call your attention to the belief and prac- 
tice of the Romish church in the fifteenth century, 
and you Avill find that heresy and heretics were 
still persecuted by her. Witness the conduct of 
Pope Innocent VHI. toward the Yaudois. He 
sent one of his Jesuit legates amongst them, wiih 
instructions to prevail on Louis XH. to extirpate 
them from his dominions, without even hearing any 
deputies which they might send him. The answer 
of Louis did him much credit — " Though I were 
at war with a Turk or the devil, I would hear wliat 
he had to say for himself" They accordingly 



104 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. 

made their defence ; and, upon this, the good King 
Louis sent commissioners to examine the state of 
things among them. The following was their re- 
port, as history informs us : " Having made a strict 
inquiry into their mode of living, we cannot dis- 
cover the least shadow of the crimes imputed to 
them. On the contrary, it appears that they pious- 
ly observe the Sabbath, baptize their children after 
the manner of the primitive church, and are thor- 
oughly instructed in the doctrine of the apostles' 
creed, and in the law of God." On hearing this 
report, the king exclaimed, in a passion, addressing 
himself to the Pope's legate — " By the holy mother 
of God, these heretics, whom you and the Pope 
urge me to destroy, are better men than you or my- 
self." He, however, soon departed this life, and 
every man acquainted with history knows what 
their sufferings were from the time of his death 
down to the days of Cromwell, who, whatever his 
faults may have been, fired with indignation at the 
barbarities committed by the Romish church, inter- 
posed in behalf of those persecuted people, and 
called upon Protestant princes and sovereigns to 
aid him in protecting them. 

I will not burden the reader with a history of 
the sufferings of these people. It is familiar even to 
our schoolboys. I must, however, repeat the fact, 
that they were persecuted for no other reason than 
because they believed the Bible contained all the 
truths necessary to salvation, and because they did 
not believe in all the mummeries of Popery. Will 
Catholic bishops and priests still continue to assert 
that their church does not teach them to persecute 
heretics, and to hold no faith with them ? Will they 
continue to assert, that the Pope of Rome does not 
claim temporal as well as spiritual nirisdiction over 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 105 

the kingdoms of the earth ? or if they do, are we 
compelled to listen to them ? 

There is scarcely any one who does not recollect 
the conduct of the holy see, as it is nicknamed, 
towards Q.aeen Elizabeth, on her ascension to the 
throne of England.^ The queen sent a messenger 
to the court of Rome, to inform the Pope of the 
event. This was an act of state courtesy ; but his 
holiness had the insolence to reply to the messen- 
ger who represented his sovereign : '• Tell your 
mistress that England was held in fief of the apos- 
tolic see ; that she could not succeed, being ille- 
gitimate ; nor could she contradict the declarations 
made in that matter by his predecessors, Clement 
VII. and Paul III., Tell your mistress," said this 
insolent ecclesiastic, " that it was great boldness in 
her to assume the crown without my consent, for 
which, in reason, she deserves no favor at my 
hands ; yet if fie will renounce her pretensions 
and refer herself wholly to me, I would show a 
fatherly affection to her, and do every thing for her 
that could consist with the dignity of the Roman 
see." 

Fellow-citizens, do you want any other proof to 
satisfy you that the Pope of Rome claims universal 
jurisdiction over kings, queens, nations, kingdoms, 
and all mankind? It is only about three hundred 
years since this occurred ; and is there evidence on 
record that the Pope has resigned the prerogative 
of universal dominion which he then claimed ? 
You may laugh at the idea of his claiming it over 
this country ; but, mark what I tell you, some suc- 
cessor of the present Pope will not only claim, but 
exercise it in less than half the time that has 
elapsed since the days of Elizabeth. Other objects 
may divert your attention from this subject ; you 
5* 



106 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

may sleep on in fancied secnrity, but your sleep 
may be fatal. 

" America," as a talented writer (Giustiniani) ex- 
presses it, "is the promised land, the land of the 
Jesuits' operations. To obtain the ascendency, 
they have no need of a mercenary Swiss guard, 
or the assistance of the holy alliance^ but a majori- 
ty of votes, which can easily be obtained by an 
importation of Roman Catholics from Ireland, Ba- 
varia, and Austria. Rome, viewed at a distance, 
is a colossus ; near at hand, its grandeur diminishes, 
its charm is lost. But the Jesuits are every where 
the same — cunning, immoral, and sneaking in- 
triguers, until they have obtained the ascendency. 
Rome feels her weakness at home ; she knows her- 
self to be a mere political institution, dressed in the 
garment of Christianity. She takes good care to 
uphold that holy militia, the Jesuits, in order «o 
appear what she is not. It is a s(Ke for existence. 
I am not a politician," says this writer, ". but know- 
ing the active spirit of Jesuitism, and the indif- 
ference of the generality of Protestants, I have 
no doubt whatever, that in ten years the Jesuits 
will have a mighty influence over the ballot-box, 
and in twenty they will direct it according to their 
own pleasure. Now they fawn, in ten years they 
will menace, and in twenty command." 

In this city they not only " fawn," but they have 
proceeded to "menace." Some of the knowing 
ones among the Catholics now boast that they have 
the power to govern this city, and they intend to 
exercise it. This is no. idle threat. Even now, 
though they are actually less in numerical strength 
in the aggregate, than the Protestants, and pay far 
less for the support of our fr?e schools, they, never- 
theless, have succeeded in depriving Protestant 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 107 

children of the privilege of using ihe Bible i'o': a 
school-book, as they have been wont to do. Prot- 
estants may sleep on if they will, bat they may be 
assured that they are sleeping on the sides of a 
burning volcano, and that ere long they will be 
awakened, but too late, we fear, by tfie angry 
thmiders of the upheaving fires within, which shalj 
scathe and desolate the fair heritage they now 
enjoy. 

I entreat you, fellow-citizens, never to forget the 
solemn declaration of the father of your country : 
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, 
(I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the 
jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly 
awake ; since history and experience prove, that 
foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of a 
republican government." This is the warning of 
the immortal Washington, and should not pass un- 
heeded. To th^<same effect spoke other revolu- 
tionary patriots. Jefl'erson says, " I hope we may 
€nd some means in future of shielding ourselves 
from foreign influence, political, commercial, or in 
whatever form it may be attempted. I can scarcely 
withhold myself from joining in the wish of Silas 
Deane — that there were an ocean of fire between 
this and the old world." And Madison said, " For- 
eign influence is truly a Grecian horse to the re- 
public. We cannot be too careful to exclude its 
entrance." 

The cruelty of Papists, the intrigue and craft of 
Popes, the hypocrisy of Jesuits, the dynasties which 
they have overthrown, the devastations and carnage 
which they had occasioned, for centuries back, 
were matters of historical notoriety, and were well 
known to our pure-minded and clear-headed fore- 
fathers. They dreaded similar occurrences in this 



108 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

happy republic, which they have bequeathed to us 
as their trustees, to be handed down to posterity; 
and hence arose their warnings to be on onr guard 
against all foreign interference with our institutions 
or our country. 

Ponder upon those warnings, and let each and 
every Protestant in the Union pledge himself to 
guard our liberties, as the apple of his eye. I speak 
from experience. I am myself a foreigner by birth, 
though a resident of this country for thirty years. 
My life has been a checkered one. Born a Roman 
Catholic in the south of Ireland, educated a Ro- 
man Catholic priest, officiating in that capacity 
for some years, here, as well as in my native coun- 
try, and. for many years a member of the bar in 
South Carolina and Georgia, I could not fail to 
acquire a correct knowledge of the doctrines and 
practices of the Romish church. The result of my 
experience is, that the doctrines of the Roman 
Catholic church are fatal to the morals of any peo- 
ple ; at variance with sound national policy and 
pure religion. It is a rank and poisonous weed, 
which will flourish even in the soil of liberty. 
Would that I could eradicate it ! Would that you 
would enable me to tear up this Upas, which is 
spreading its poison, from one end of oar land to 
the other ! Would that you could aid me in muz- 
zling those Popish bloodhounds, who are freely cours- 
ing over our eastern mountains and western valleys ! 
Already have they scented blood, and I warn you 
to be on your guard or they will scent more. 

I am no sectarian ; I am not the tool of any 
party, either in church or state. I have never 
asked the countenance or support of any religious 
denomination, nor has any ever been tendered to 
me. I have stood alone in my opposition to that 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 109 

hydra-headed monster, Popery. There is no abuse 
which I have not received ; no calumny which has 
not be-en heaped apon me ; no crime which they 
have not accused me of; no scurrilous epitliet 
which they have not applied to me. All this I have 
met single-handed ; but I would bear it again^ 
rather than submit to the iniquitous doctrines 
of Popery. I would bear it again, rather than sub- 
mit, as native Americans have done, and are doing, 
to be publicly denounced, as cowards and sons oj 
cowards and pirates. 

But, fellow-citizens, they do not consider you 
cowards and pirates alone ; they will, by-and-by, 
apply to you a term, which you will better deserve. 
It is sweet, it is a euphonious name, and I trust 
you will bear it with as much Christian philan- 
thropy, as you have that of cowards, and pirates — 
Fools. It is the only ignominious term, in the 
English language, which they have not applied to 
myself, and I assure my fellow-citizens, natives of 
this country, that if you are willing to be governed 
by the Pope of Rome, and his priests, and bishops, 
I shall never question your paramount claim to this 
preeminent distinction. Can you bear the follow- 
mg opprobrious language applied to you by the 
Jesuit, now the Boston Pilot, the organ of the 
bishop of that city. '' How in the name of con- 
science," says this Popish organ, " can a man have 
the impudence to find fault with honest emigrants, 
whose own fathers were emigrant pirates 7 " You 
are also complimented by the Literary and Catholic 
Sentinel, another Popish press, in Philadelphia. 
That blessed organ of Popery, the Sentinel, in its 
comments upon a sermon delivered by that elo- 
quent Presbyterian divine, McCalla, thus eulogizes 
New England. He, Mr. McCalla, knew the char- 



-.IC SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

acter of his New England audience, that their 
minds were warped by fanaticism, darkened by 
bigotry, and vitiated by the abhorred, and atrocious 
principles inculcated by the vile and sangurnary 
wretches^ called the Pilgrim Fathers. He well 
knew that the mental capacity of the generality of 
his hearers were chained down by ignorance." 

Very flattering this, especially to Bostonians, 
and their puritan fathers. Their fathers were san- 
guinary wretches, if we believe Papists, and the 
people of Boston are an ignorant set of boobies. 
You, Americans, may bear all this ; you know not 
the designs of Popery, but I do ; and v/hile I have 
liberty to write, I will write for liberty, and in 
opposition to Popery. Truth may be unpalatable 
to Papists, but it is my duty to record it. 

Among the instructions which 1 received from 
my bishop in Ireland, when he sent me out to this 
country as a Catholic priest, was one to which I 
beg to call your attention. The same is given to 
every priest in the United States. *' Let it be your 
first duty to extirpate heretics, but be cautious as 
to the m-anner of doing it. Do nothing without 
consulting the bishop of the diocese, in which you 
may be located ; and if there be no bishop there, 
advise with the metropolitan bishop. He has his 
instructions from Rome, and he understands the 
character of the people. Be sure not to permit the 
members of our holy church, who may be under 
your charge, to read the Bible. It is the source of 
all heresies. Whenever you see an opportunity of 
building a church, make it known to your bishop. 
Let the land be purchased for the Pope, and his 
successors in office. Never yield or give up the 
divine right, which the head of the church has, by 
virtue of the Keys, to the government of North 



AS IT V/AS AND AS IT IS. Ill 

America, as well as every other country. The con- 
fessional will enable you to know the people 
by degrees ; with the aid of that holy tribunaL 
and our bishops, who are guided by the spirit of 
God, we may expect, at no distant day, to bring 
over North America to the bosom of our holy 
church." 

This needs some explanation. By extirpating 
heresy, he meant the conversion of heretics to 
the Romish church, without violence, if possible, 
if not, by such means as the Romish church has 
adopted in all ages. You have already seen what 
these means were — I need not now repeat them j 
but you shall see them more plainly, when I lay 
before you, as I intend to do hereafter ; the ways 
and means which the church has adopted, to bring 
over the Huguenots from the darkness of Protest- 
ant error, to the glorious light of Popish truth. 

The Bible, as you are aware, is a forbidder. 
book in the Romish church. I remember when 
acting as Popish priest, in Philadelphia, having 
ventured to suggest to the very Rev. Mr. De Barth, 
then acting as vicar-general of that diocese, the 
advantages of educating the poor, and circulating 
the Bible among them. He scouted at the idea, 
as heretical, and lodged a written complaint against 
me, before the archbishop of Baltimore, then 
Romish metropolitan. I was reprimanded ver- 
bally, through the aforesaid De Barth. He was too 
crafty to send it in writing ; the Papists were not 
then strong enough to forbid, openly, the reading of 
the Bible. It was then too soon to seal up the 
fountain of eternal life in this free country. The 
most sympathizing Protestants could scarcely be- 
lieve then, that in less than thirty years. Papists 
would not only dare forbid it to be read, by their 



112 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. 

own people, and in their own schools, but cast it 
out of Protestant schools, as they did the 'other 
day in New York. What are we coming to, Amer- 
icans ? Your ancestors have come to this country, 
with no recommendations but holy lives ; with no 
fortune but their pious hearts and strong arms ; 
with no treasure but the word of God. 

Will you now permit Papists to cast those Bibles 
out of your schools, to burn them on the public 
streets, as they have done in the state of New 
York, under the inspection of Popish priests, as 
proved on the oath of several respectable witnesses ? 
That priest, however, did no more than every 
priest and bishop would do, did he deem it expedi- 
ent ; and here, fellow-citizens, let me assure you, 
that same power which authorizes that priest, or 
any other priest, to burn your Bibles, also author- 
izes him to burn every heretic or Protestant in this 
country. 

The same power which authorizes them to offi- 
ciate as priests, empowers them to destroy heretics^ 
whenever it is expedient ; and is ready to absolve 
them from the commission of this foul deed. Saint 
Thomas Aquinas, in his second book, chapter the 
3d, page 58, says : " Heretics, may justly be 
killed." But you will answer, there is no danger 
of this. They can never acquire the power to 
enact any laws in this country which would sanc- 
tion such a doctrine. How sadly mistaken you 
are ! How lamentably unacquainted v/ith the se- 
cret springs or machinery of Popery ! I regret 
that circumstances oblige me so often to introduce 
my own name, but it cannot be well avoided, for 
the purpose of explaining certain Popish transac- 
tions in the United States. \Vhile I was a Romish 
oriest in Philadelphia, and soon after my difference 



AS IT WAS AVD AS IT IS. 113 

with the archbishop of Baltimore, in relation to the 
introduction of the Bible, a consultation Avas held 
between the Popish priests in the diocese of Philadel- 
phia, and it was secretly resolved by them, that the 
best mode of checking Hogan^s heresy, as they 
were pleased to term my advocating the reading of 
the Bible, was to take possession of the church in 
which I officiated, in the name of the Pope. They 
accordingly wrote to his holiness, humbly praying 
this man-god to send them out a bishop, and to 
give him, and his successors in office, a lease of 
St. Mary's church, in Philadelphia, and all the ap- 
purtenances thereunto belonging. Accordingly his 
ROYAL HOLINESS tlic Popc seut them a bishop with 
the aforesaid lease. I was immediately ordered 
out of the church ; and having refused to depart, un- 
less tV.e trustees thought proper to remove me, this 
emissary of the Pope, only a few days or weeks in 
this country, had me indited and imprisoned for 
disturbing public worship, or in other words, offi- 
ciating in St. Mary's church, even with the full and 
undivided consent of the trustees. 

But the bishop's legal right was questioned ; the 
case was brought before the supreme court of Penn- 
sylvania, Chief Justice Tighlman presiding. I was 
discharged from bail and custody, and the rights 
of the trustees, under their charter from the state, 
sustained. But the priests and bishops were not 
content with this decision. They put their heads 
once more together, and fancied that they dis- 
covered another mode by which they could rob the 
people of their rights, and defeat the intentions of 
the donors of the property of St. Mary's church ; 
and what was their plan, think you, fellow-citi- 
zens ? 

The bishop called a meeting of all the priests 



lU 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



and leading Catholics in the diocese. Every lay 
member was ordered to bring with him a hickory 
stick. The meeting was held in the church of St, 
Joseph ; and at the hour of twelve at night, the' 
Romish bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania^ an 
Irishman, not more than a few months in the coun- 
try, attended in his pontificals, told the multitude 
who were there assembled to lay down their sticks 
in one pile, in order that he might bless them for 
their use. This was done as a matter of course. 
The bishop said mass, sprinkled holy water upon 
the sticks, blessed them, and this done, the whole 
party bound themselves by a solemn vow never to 
cease until they elected a legislature in Pennsylvania 
that would annul the charter of St. Mary's church ; 
and, as an American citizen, I blush to state the fact, 
they succeeded. The charter was annulled by an act 
of the legislature, and property, worth over a million 
of dollars, would have passed into the hands of the 
Pope and his agents, were there not a provision in 
the constitution of that state empowering the su- 
preme court to decide upon the constitutionality of 
the acts of the legislature. 

We brought the question of the constitutionality of 
the act, which annulled the charter, before the court, 
Justice Tighlman still presiding. The court decided 
in the negative, otherwise the trustees and myself 
would have been defeated ; I should have been fined 
and imprisoned, and they ousted out of their trust. 

This, I believe, was the first attempt the Pope 
has made to establish his temporal power in this 
country; and it is a source of consolation to me, 
dearer almost than existence itself, to be the first to 
meet this holy bull. If I have not strangled him. 
and trampled him to death, I have, at least, the 
comfort of seeing his horns so blunted, that his 



AS IT WAS ANJ> AS IT IS. 115 

bello wings have been, ever since, comparative!}' 
harmless. But there seems a recuperative power in 
the BEAST. He is again attempting to plant his foot 
upon our soil, and establish his temporal power 
amongst us ; and how is he trying to accomplish 
this, fellow-citizens ? The Papists have united 
themselves together as a body, headed by their 
priests, and resolved to carry, through the ballot 
box, what they cannot otherwise accomplish, at 
least for the present. Popish priests have all be- 
come politicians ; they publicly preach peace, good 
order, and obedience to the " powers that be," but 
they tell the people in the confessional, to disre- 
gard those instructions, and stop at nothing which 
may promote the interests of the church. 

They have now, what they call " religious news- 
papers," under the supervision of their bishops, but 
in which not a word of pure religion, or Christian 
charity, is to be found. They are political presses, 
whose object is to overthrow our laws, our govern- 
ment, and introduce, in their stead, anarchy and 
confusion. These people — and here I allude to 
Irish Catholics and their priests in particular 
— have no regard for the obligations of an oath. 
Let the priest only tell them that it is for the good 
of the churchy and they will stop at no crime ; no, not 
even at murder ; and they are daily becoming more 
audacious, in consequence of the support which they 
receive from unprincipled politicians, and the mor- 
bid indifference of Protestants. 

I have shown you, in a former page, that the in- 
crease of Catholics, in this country, will soon give 
them a majority of voters : and who, think you, ' 
will they vote for? A Protestant is it ? Any man 
distinguished for virtue, and for love of republican 
principles? Assuredly nut. 



1 16 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

• 

Will they select such a man as the virtuous and 
pious Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey? Will they 
choose such a man as the upright and honorable 
Archer, of Virginia ? Will they cast their votes 
for such a man as the honest John C. Calhoun, of 
South Carolina; than whom, whatever may be his 
politics, there is not a greater or a better man of 
tiie age. 

I might name hundreds, equally good and great 
men, who are disqualified, by their virtues, from 
receiving the votes of Popish vassals. None but 
mercenary demagogues, such as the Pope's tool, 
Daniel O'ConneU, who generously sacrifices five 
thousand pounds a year to obtain fifty-six thousand, 
the sum which he received last year in order to 
ameliorate the condition of the poor Irish. Give the 
power, and they will elect such a political desperado 
as this restless O'ConneU, a Jesuit by education, 
an intriguer by nature, and as great a coward as 
ever drew breath. This is the champion, and his 
followers — the Irish — are the people, who call 
Americans cowards, and their "pilgrim fathers." 
'pirates and sanguinary wretches. These are the 
men, with Daniel O'ConneU at their head, number- 
ing nine millions of the " bravest men i^i the world,'^ 
who have been for centuries, and are now, on their 
knees, begging favors from the British government. 
Americans, too, once asked for favors, or rather their 
just rights, from that government, but not having 
obtained them, they drew their swords, threw away 
their scabbards, and, though the whole population 
of the United States did not, at that time, amount 
to two and a half millions, they fought for their 
rights, and they won them. Yet these Popish 
braggarts, but wretched slav^es, call you cowards^ 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 117 

• 

and your fathers pirates. How long will you suf- 
fer this ? 

We know, from history, that Popery and liberty 
cannot coexist in the same country. A Popish 
government has never advanced human happiness. 
It never promotes any object truly great or philan- 
thropic. How deplorable would it be, did this 
country fall a prey to those who are trying to es- 
tablish it amongst us. The truth is, Popish glory, 
the trappings of its court, have been always the 
silly objects of the Roman church, while the mass 
of her people has ever been left in the recesses of 
want, obscurity, and ignorance. 

Americans, at present, seem sunk in a sort of po- 
litical lethargy ; and this is taken advantage of, by 
foreign priests and Jesuits ; but I would tell those 
disturbers of our peace, not to trust too much to 
this apparent sluggishness ; a calm often precedes a 
storm : the continued insolence, abuses, and threats 
of Papists, may arouse our young lion, and, if I 
mistake not — ^although, appearances are at present 
against it — his holiness and his minions, who are 
trying to set up a power in this country unknown 
to our constitution, and not enumerated in our bill 
of rights, may have occasion to tremble. 

To effect this, however, without the shedding of 
blood, it is necessary — indispensably necessary — 
that no Papist should hold office, or even vote, un- 
til he ceases to have any connection, or hold any 
alliance with the Pope, who is ^foreign potentate. 
as well as head of the church. Let them come 
amongst us, if they will, but let it be with healing 
on their wings, and not to disturb our peace and 
tranquillity. Let them prove themselves the friends 
of liberty, religion, and mankind, and Americans 
will receive them with open arms, admit them to a 



ititii 



118 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. 

full participation in all their own privileges, and ex- 
tend to them the hand of friendship ; but never let 
this be done, until they forswear expressly and 
without mental reservation^ all allegiance, of what- 
ever kind, and under whatever name, to the Pope 
of Rome, who is d. foreign potentate^ and acknowl- 
edged as such by the powers of Europe. When a 
Papist refuses to do this, trust him not. I repeat it, 
trust him not, Americans. He is a spy amongst 
you, a traitor to your country, and the sworn ene- 
my of your religion and your liberties. 

This, however, they do not. They come 
amongst you with different motives and far different 
characters. Though I know them well, it would 
be impossible for me to express to you the designs 
which mark their entrance into this country. 
They cross the Atlantic, under instructions from 
their priests, and bring nothing with them but 
their bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance. Their 
tastes, their passions, and their native hatred of 
Protestants are wafted over to us, and are al- 
ready corrupting the morals of our people. In 
their native country they feel, or pretend to feel, 
oppressed by British laws and British government. 
They are taught by their priests to despise their 
government, at home ; that its laws are all penal, 
and that there is no crime in evading them. 

There is not an Irish Catholic, who leaves that 
country, but feels it his duty to resist the laws 
of Protestant England, and evade, by perjury or 
otherwise, their execution. '' In no country in the 
world," says a modern writer. " are the rights of 
property so recklessly violated : amongst no people 
on the face of the earth are the obligations of an 
oath, or the discharge of the moral duties, so 
utterly disregarded. Any man, the greatest cul- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 119 

prit, can find persons to prove an alibi; the most 
atrocious assassin has but to seek protection, 
to obtain it. And why is this so ? Because the 
rebgious instruction of the people has been total- 
ly neglected ; because their priests have become 
politicians ; because their bishops, pitchforked 
from the potatoe-basket to the palace, have become 
drunk with the incense offered to their vanity ; and 
the patronage granted in return for their unprinci- 
pled support, instead of checking the misconduct 
of the subordinates, stimulate them to still further 
violence, and stop at nothing which can forward 
their objects. Because the opinions of the people 
are formed on the statements and advice of mendi- 
cant agitators, who have but one object in view — 
their own aggrandizement. Because a rabid and 
revolutionary press, concealing its ultimate designs 
under the motive of affording protection to the 
weak, seeks to overthrow all law and order, 
pandering to the worst passions of an ignorant and 
ferocious populace." 

Irish priests and Irish bishops complain of pov- 
erty and grievances at home. They complain 
that men of property leave their homes and spend 
their incomes abroad ; but as this writer, to whom 
I have alluded expresses it, " What encouragement 
do they give to such as return from their resi- 
dences abroad ? " Allow me, fellow-citizens, to 
give you an instance of the treatment which 
Protestants of fortune receive from Irish Roman 
priests, when they do return to reside upon their 
estates in Ireland. I quote from the same au- 
thor : — 

"The Marquis of Waterford, a sportsman. 

boundless in his charities, frank and cordial in his 

manners, not obnoxious on account of his politics, 

and admitted on all hands to be one of the best 

tj 



120 SYNOPSIS OF POPEKlf, 

landlords in Ireland, comes to reside, and spend his 
eighty thousand sterhng per annum, in the coun- 
try. He gets up a splendid establishment in the 
county of Tipperary ; and how is he treated ? 
His hounds and horses were twice poisoned. 
There are scarcely any Protestants in the county 
of Tipperary. His offices were fired, and his ser- 
vants, with difficulty, saved their lives. Com- 
pelled to a,bandon Tipperary- — that sink of Popish 
iniquity, every nook and corner of which I am 
acquainted with — this generous and fine-hearted 
young nobleman retires to his family mansion, in 
Waterford ; and how is he received there ? I will 
not tell you ; let his parish priest tell the story. 
"Men of Portlan," says this holy Romish priest^ 
addressing the tenants and neighbors of the Mar- 
quis of Waterford, " you were the leading men 
who put down Beresford, in '26 (the marquis's 
father) ; I call on you now, having put down one 
set of tyrants, to put down another set of tyrants, 
the marquis himself." 

Many of the Romish priests, which we have in 
this country, are from that very county of Tippe- 
rary, and thousands of the poor Irish amongst us 
have had their education, such as it is, from such 
worthy apostolic successors as the parish priest of 
the Marquis of Waterford. 

Such are the people to whom you are yield- 
ing the destinies of this happy republic, by allow- 
ing them to vote at your elections, or to hold any 
office" of honor or trust, while they have any con- 
nection with the head of their church, the Pope of 
Rome. Let the reader pass on from Popish Tippe- 
rary to Protestant Ulster, and he will see that the 
crimes of the Irish, and the miseries which many 
of them sufier, are to be attributed almost solely to 
their religion and their priests. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 121 

Mr. Kohl, a fair and very impartial writer, at 
'east, upon Ireland, and who is often quoted by 
the great agitator, O'Connell, says, — in passing 
from that part of the country, where the majority 
of the inhabitants profess the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion to that in which the great bulk of the popu- 
lation are Protestants or Presbyterians, — ''On the 
other side of these miserable hills, whose inhabi- 
tants are years before they can afford to get the 
holes mended in their potatoe kettles, (the most im- 
portant article of furniture in an Irish cabin,) the 
territory of Leinster and that of Munster begins. 
The coach rattled over the boundary line, and all at 
once we seemed to have entered a new world. I 
am not in the slightest degree exaggerating when 
[ say, that everything was as suddenly changed as 
if by an enchanter's wand. The dirty cabins by 
the road side were succeeded by neat, pretty cot- 
tages ; well cultivated fields and shady trees met 
the eye on every side. At first I could scarcely 
believe my own eyes, and thought the change must 
be merely local, caused by particular management 
of that particular state, but the improvement lasted, 
and continued to show me that I was among a to- 
tally different people, the Scottish settlers, and the 
industrious Presbj^terians." 

We see, in this country, the same difference of 
character and habits, between the Irish Protestants 
and the Irish Catholics. The Irish Protestant, 
wherever you find him, laboring on his loom in 
the north of Ireland, working in a factory in New 
England, keeping a shop in New York, or culti- 
vating a plantation in Carolina, values his home 
and integrity, as pearls of great price. He is gen- 
erally temperate, frugal, and industrious. We sel- 
dom, or never, hear him accused of disturbing the 
peace, or fraudulently voting at elections ; on the 
U 



123 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

whole, he arrives amongst us a worthy man, and. 
in time, becomes a useful citizen ; and to what is 
this owing ? It is owing to his education. He 
lias been taught the Bible in his youth ; from this 
he learned to love his God, above all things, and his 
neighbor as himself 

But how is it with the Roman Catholic, who 
comes amongst you ? Scarce does he land on 
your shores, when he becomes more turbulent, 
more noisy, and more presumptuous, than when he 
left his native bogs. As soon as he confesses to 
his priest, he hurrahs for democracy, by which 
he means anarchy, confusion, and the downfall of 
heretics. He must vote ; if he cannot do so fairly, 
his priest tells him how to evade the obligations of 
an oath. He v/ill swear to support a constitution, 
which he never read, and never was read to him ; 
he goes again to the confessional, and leaves that 
sacred tribunal with an oath upon his lips, that 
" Americans shall not rule him." He soon hears 
the words, '• Pilgrim Fathers ; " he goes to his priest, 
and asks what these words mean ; he is told that 
they were vile wretches, pirates, who came to this 
country many years ago, and whose sons were all 
cowards^ and thus we see that, as far as it is in their 
power, they are trying to reduce this country, and 
its native inhabitants, to a level with that in which 
their vile religion — Popery — has placed them- 
selves. If we could cast our eyes over the history 
of the world, we should be struck with horror at 
the fatal consequences of Popery. 

Wherever its followers have had an ascendency, 
or wherever they have it now, they appear to be 
conspirators against the happiness of the human 
race. What v/ere the means by which Popish 
kings, emperors, and princes, conducted their gov- 
ernments — ivith the advice and consent of the 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 123 

Pope of Rome, the vicegerent of heaven ? Craft, 
extortion, fire, and sword. What are the means by 
which those governments, which at this day are 
under the Pope and his priests, are conducted ? 

The Pope apes the very thunders of heaven, 
and such are the "imitative powers" of his priests 
and bishops, that they are equally as destructive as 
the original. I have alluded to the contrast be- 
tween the Catholic and Protestant people of Ire- 
land. The one prosperous and happy; the other 
poor, miserable, and degraded. Heaven's vice- 
gerent, as the bishops call the Pope, and the Pa- 
pists call the bishops, seldom bestow a thought 
upon their subjects, except to gull and inveigle 
them for the aggrandizement of their church ; and 
we now see Ireland, one of the fairest countries 
upon earth, a country over which God has scattered 
plenty, and to which nature is peculiarly bounti- 
ful, reduced to want by insolent, haughty bishops, 
and vile, profligate priests. 

That beautiful land which nature taught to smile 
with abundance, they have watered with tears, and 
with blood, all the result of Popery ; and this has 
been its effect every where. It operates like the 
east wind, causing blasting, barrenness, and desola- 
tion, wherever it goes, and nothing but the hercu- 
lean arm of this young and vigorous republic can 
check its progress among ourselves. 

But I may be told that nothing is to be dreaded 
in this country from Papists ; that they have neither 
numbers, nor means, to accomplish their designs 
upon our institutions. Let us see whether this is 
so. I have stated, in a former page, the number of 
bishops, priests, seminaries, and Papists, in this 
country. I have also shown yon, to a demonstra- 
tion, that if the number of emigrant Papists should 
continue to increase for the next thirty years, as 



\u 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



they have for the last eight, they will be a majority 
of the population of the United States, and the 
Pope onr supreme temporal ruler. 

Permit me, now, to give you some idea of what 
their means are, at least such portion of them as 
they derive from Europe, and you can judge for 
yourselves what they are in the United States. 1 
will give you the amount sent from Europe, during 
the years 1841, 1842, and 1843. I quote from 
their own books and receipts. 



To Mr. Lefevre, coadjutor and ad- 
ministrator, at Detroit, . . 

Mr. Purcell, Bishop of Cincin- 
nati, 

Mr. Fenwick, Bishop of Boston, 

Mr. Kenrick, coadjutor and 
administrator, Philadelphia, 

Mr. Hughes, coadjutor and 
administrator, of New York, 

Mr. Miles, Bishop of Nashville, 

Mr. Flaget, Bishop of Bards- 
town, 

Mr. Hailandiere, Bishop of Vin- 

cennes, 

For the Congregation of the Eu- 
dists, in the Diocese of Vin- 
cennes, 

Mr. Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis, 

Mr. Chanels, Bishop of Natchez, 

Mr. Blanc, Bishop of New Or- 
leans, 

Mr. Portier, Bishop of Mobile, 

Mr.England, Bishop of Charles- 
ton, 

Mr. Whelan, Bishop of Rich- 
mond, 

The Missions of the Priests of 
Mercy in the United States, 

The Missions of the Lazarists 
in the United States, . . . 

The Missions of the Jesuits in 
the state of Missouri, . . . 

The Missions of the Jesuits in 
the state of Kentucky, . . 



1841. 


1842. 
$1,010 95 


$1,97160 


7,778 52 
3,700 28 


5,554 20 
3,063 32 


3,660 48 


2,96856 


8,236 08 
4,575 60 


10,885 72 
4,452 84 


8,676 06 




8,291 88 


12,245 87 


3,720 00 

10,519 88 
4,775 40 


3,463 32 

10,21140 

3,958 08 


2,745 35 

1,835 82 


1,979 04 
3,958 08 


7,440 00 


4,452 84 


4,575 60 


4,94760 


4,575 60 


2,720 GO 


6,510 00 




7,513 60 


5,580 00 


2,790 GO 


3,348 00 


103,891 75 


85,799 82 



1843. 



$7,44764 

9,448 80 
2,866 40 

1,145 76 

9,020 22 
4,006 16 



10,603 36 

1,860 00 

10,884 72 

2,291 72 

4,583 04 
6,259 60 

2,864 40 

6,235 68 

8,5.5600 



5,95200 

3,720 00 
97,745 50 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 125 

With such an amount of funds annually, from 
abroad, in the hands of a body of men, who un- 
derstand how to manage and appropriate them, 
perhaps better than any other association in the 
world, with the majority of the population of these 
United States, and having but one single object in 
view, namely, the supremacy of their Pope and 
their church; what have Americans not to fear? 
They will avail themselves of a corrupt state of 
representation ; they will procure a majority in 
your national legislature, and then, I say, woe be 
to your liberties. 

Your school-houses, which now ring, at stated 
hours, with the praises and glories of God on high, 
wherein children are given to drink of the waters 
of life, will be converted into monk-houses, and 
lying-in-hospitals ; prayers to God will no longer 
be heard in them ; vagabond saints and wooden 
images will be the only objects of adoration ; 
ignorance and vice will take the place of intelH- 
gence and virtue ; idleness will take the place of 
industry ; and the free American who, heretofore, 
was taught to walk erect before God and man, will 
shrivel and dwindle into a thing fit only to crouch 
before a tyrant Pope, and become a hewer of wood 
and drawer of water, for lazy and gkittonous priests, 
Avho, for centuries, have been trying to extinguish 
the light of reason and science, and who, even at 
the present moment, aye, at our very doors, are 
trying to abolish some of the finest productions of 
genius. 

Witness the prohibition, recently, in France, of 
the publication of the Wandering Jew. Witness 
the prohibition of its circulation in Cuba ; and why 
is it prohibited? Because it exposes some of the 
trickery of Jesuitism — because it lays bare some 



126 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

of the intrigues of that hellish association — and 
because holy mother church knows full well, that 
no honest or honorable man could see her in her 
native deformity, without a shudder of disgust — 
because she knows that herself and her priests are 
but whited sepulchres, filled not with dead men's 
bones, but with the living fires of despotism, ava- 
rice, lustj and treachery — because she knows that 
Eugene Sue, who has written the Wandering Jew, 
is a Roman Catholic, well acquainted with the 
practices of Jesuits, sanctioned by the church. A 
continuation of the Wandering Jew, and its circu- 
lation, might show the world, even if there were no 
better authority, that monasteries and nunneries, 
under the control of Jesuits, were but vast Sodoms 
and prisons, full of crime and pollution. 

Eugene Sue could, and I believe would, show 
the world, if his health had not failed him, that 
Roman Catholic priests and bishops, though for- 
bidden, under pain of ex communication ^ to marry, 
were allowed to keep concubines. I refer the 
reader to the memoirs of the Romish bishop, Scipio 
de Ricci, for the truth of this assertion. 1 also re- 
fer you to another valuable work, Binnii Concillia, 
first volume, page 737. You will find the same 
in a work called Corpus Juris Canojiici, page 47, to 
be had in the Philadelphia Library. You will find 
the same permission sanctioned by the council of 
Toledo, at which Pope Leo presided. The only 
restriction put upon the licentiousness of priests, by 
the council of Toledo, was to forbid them from 
"keeping more than one concubine at a time, at 
least in puhlic^ 

Cardinal Campeggio expressly says, " that a priest 
who marries commits a more grievous sin than if 
he kept many concubines." St. Bernard, who 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 127 

died about the beginning of the twelfth century, 
and who must have been a very charitable man, as 
all Catholics now pray to him, tells the world that 
'' bishops and priests commit acts in secret, which 
it would be scandalous to express." 

Pope John XII., was convicted by a general 
council, oi fornication, murder, adultery, and in- 
cest, but these were not sufficient to depose him. 
He still believed in holy mother, the church, 
and his own infallibility. There is not an indi- 
vidual who reads these statements, and is at all ac- 
quainted with history, who does not know that 
Pope Paul III., who convened the council of 
Trent, had made large sums of money from li- 
censes given to houses of ill fame in that city. 

The holy church to this day, in the city of Mex- 
ico, to my own knowledge, receives large sums 
from the same sources, and these are supported 
principally by monks, friars and priests. No won- 
der, then, that the publication of the Wandering 
Jew should be prevented in Catholic countries. 
The writer, Mr. Sue, is a man of the world, he has 
read the book of nature with as much attention as 
he has those in his library. He is a well-read his- 
torian, and possesses an admirable faculty of com- 
municating his ideas. He clothes them with a sim- 
plicity and beauty, almost peculiar to himself. The 
man that could depict Rodin, the sanctimonious 
Jesuit, in his true character, as Mr. Sue has done, 
must necessarily be silenced in a Catholic country. 
It must not be known that Jesuits may come 
among us in the garb of merchants, or in any other 
disguise which they may please to assume ; no in- 
timation must be given, that the poisoned cup, the 
assassin's dagger, the desperate sea-captain, or the 
valiant soldier, could be concealed under a Jesuit'jB 
6* 



128 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

cow], or that he may throw off that cowl, at his 
pleasure, and exchange it for a pea-jacket, a dancing 
pump, the violin, the fencing foil, or even the cos- 
tume of a barber, or tamer of Avild beasts. 

It will not answer the purposes ol" the holy 
cnuRCH, that a man should live and write, who is 
capable of raising the curtain which hides its do- 
signs, and conceals the instruments, which she has 
ever used, and is now using, for the destruction of 
liberty. Such a man is the author of the Wan- 
dering Jew. 

No man can look at the picture w^hich he has 
drawn of Ignatius Morok, without recognizing, 
in its every feature, those of a Jesuit and a villain. 
He travelled about, in the assumed character of a 
"tamer of wild beasts," but in reality, he was a 
Jesuit missionary, and sent by that order, with full 
power to accomplish, by any means within his 
power, one of the most infamous acts of fraud that 
ever was committed by man. 

He was accompanied, (as the reader of Eugene 
Sue will find,) by a lay Jesuit, named Karl, and J 
cannot give my readers a better idea of Jesuitism, 
as it ever has been, and is nov7, than by requesting 
of them to observe the course adopted by those two 
villains in accomplishing the object of their errand. 
Look at their treatment of the honest and faithful 
Dagobert. Look at the cruelties which they in- 
flicted on the two innocent orphans, committed to 
his charge. See the schemes, by which they have 
made even the wife of Dagobert subservient to 
their designs. See the arts by which Jesuit priests 
crept into families, under various disguises, sowmg 
amongst them discord, hatred, and domestic strife. 
They have put the father against the son, and the 
son against the father : husband against wife, and 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 129 

v\rife against husband ; brother against tister, and 
^sister against brother. See how they have con- 
trived to filch from the poor and almost starving, 
the last sou they possessed, to have masses said for 
the repose of the souls of those who were actually 
living, to the knowledge of the priest, though rep- 
resented by him at the confessional, to have been 
long since dead ! 

See how one of those vagabond Jesuits, in the as- 
sumed character of a physician, aided by one of the 
sisters of that order. Madam de St. Dizier, imposed 
upon the heiress. Mademoiselle de Cardoville. He 
offered his services to accompany her to visit a friend 
of hers, but had a private understanding with a lay 
Jesuit^ in the disguise of a hack-driver, to take 
them to a lunatic asylum, where he deposited the 
heiress. I will not quote from the " Wandering 
Jew," it would be depriving my readers of much 
pleasure ; but I would recommend the perusal of it, 
in order to become acquainted with some of the 
prominent features of Jesuitism. The work ap- 
pears as a romance, but it contains many sad and 
serious facts. It is a compendium of Jesuitism, 
and should be looked upon as a warning to the 
citizens of this new world. Americans will scarcely 
believe that we have any such Jesuits in this coun- 
try, as are described in the Wandering Jew. I tell 
them they are mistaken ; we have them in every 
state in the Union, but especially in New York, 
Maryland, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and 
Massachusetts. I speak from my own knowledge. 

" Bred in the harem, all its ways 1 know." 

A word to those who have daughters, and for- 
tunes to give them ; and also to those young ladies, 
who have fortunes in their own right. 



130 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

Jesuits will leave nothing undone, to form ac- 
quaintance with the children of such as are supposed 
to be wealthy. The Catholic bishops of the Uni- 
ted States, ill their annual and semiannual de- 
spatches to Rome, boast that they are peculiarly 
fortunate in gaining converts from such families, 
and I trust a word of caution from me will not 
prove useless. 

The mode which Jesuits have adopted, in ap- 
proaching such families, are various : but the most 
general, and. hitherto the most successful is, to in- 
duce their children to go to their colleges and 
schools. In these, every male and female teacher is 
to bend the minds of their scholars towards Popery, 
and to report progress twice a week to their supe- 
riors. But when parents do not send their children 
to Jesuit schools, the next expedient is to get 
Roman Catholic servants into the family, who are 
instructed in the confessional by the priests how 
to proceed, especially with their young daughters, 
in prepossessing their minds in favor of the Romish 
church, and the great beatitudes of a single life, 

I have known cases myself, where it was not 
deemed prudent to go so far as to say one word 
in favor of the Catholic church, or of a single 
life. The young ladies may be engaged, and 
their young hearts pledged. A different course 
must now be pursued, and the Popish domestic has 
her instructions accordingly. She must find out to 
whom the lady is, or is likely to be, engaged ; and it 
must be broken off, not abruptly — that is not the 
way Jesuits do things — it is to be done gradually. 
Their young minds must be poisoned, but the poi- 
son must be given in small quantities, until finally 
it produces the desired efiect : and then the happi- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 131 

theme of conversation, more or less, according to 
the instructions received in the confessional. 

It is not long since I met with a Protestant 
friend of mine, and in the course of conversation, 
some allusion was made to the subject of nunneries. 
He observed that their schools were excellent : that 
his daughter had just finished her education there, 
and had returned home in perfect ecstacy with her 
school, with the lady abbess who presided over it, 
and with all the nuns by whom she had been edu- 
cated. "It is said," observed this gentleman to 
me, " that nuns try to tamper with the religious 
opinions of their pupils, and endeavor to make ' nuns 
of them,' but there is no truth in this; they never 
interfered with my daughter's religious opinions, 
nor did they insinuate to her the most remote idea 
of taking the veil, or becoming a nunJ^ 

I made no reply — courtesy forbade it. I might 
easily have answered my friend, but I feared the 
answer, which truth compelled me to give, would 
hurt his feelings. I might have said to him, Sir, 
your daughter had not a dollar in her own right, 
neither had you one to give her, and you must 
know that Jesuits seldom covet penniless applicants 
for the black, or white veil. You should have also 
known that, although your daughter may have 
seemed very beautiful in your eyes, she was proba- 
bly devoid of those external charms which would 
attract the libidinou? eye of a Jesuit. When ladies 
are taken into a convent by Jesuits, they must be 
possessed of somethmg more than ordinary attrac- 
tions. These reverend Jesuits, having the liberty 
of choosing, are rather fastidious. Verbum sat. 

Truly, and from my heart, I pity the female, who 
risks herself in the school of Jesuit nuns. She 
hazards all that is dear to her. Though she may 



132 



SYNOPSIS OF porrBY, 



leave it, single-minded and innocent as she entered. 

— as I believe the)?' all do who do not become nuns^ 

— still the peril of going there at all is eminently 
hazardous and dangerous. But woe be to those 

who become nuns. I have been chaDlain to one 

J. 

of those nunneries ; and I assure my readers, on the 
honor of a man, who is entirely disinterested, and 
whose circumstances place him in an mdependent 
position, who wants neither favors nor patronage 
from any mdividual, that the very air we breathe, 
or the very ground upon which we walk, is not 
made more obedient or more subservient to our use, 
than a nun, who takes the black veil^ is to the use 
of Popish priests and Jesuits. 

The internal economy and abominations of a 
convent are horrible in the extreme. I dare not 
mention them, otherwise my book would, and 
ought to be, thrown out of every respectable house 
in the city. I will only call my reader's attention 
to the fact, that, in all Catholic countries, nunneries 
\\diVe foundling hospitals attached to them. This 
any man can see who goes to France, Spain, Portu- 
gal, or Mexico. 

It will be seen, even in this country, that thef 
have their private burying places and secret vaults. 
It is not more than five or six years, since a num- 
ber of Jesuits, in Baltimore, petitioned the legisla- 
ture of Maryland for leave to run a subterraneous 
passage from one of their chapels to a nunnery, dis- 
tant only about five hundred yards. The object of 
the petitioners was too plain. It was the most 
daring outrage ever offered any deliberative body 
of men ; but, much to the credit of the legislature 
of Maryland, they rejected the petition with undis- 
guised marks of indignant scorn. 

These statements will be rather unpalatable to 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 133 

Jesuits, but my only regret is, that decency forbids 
a full development of the crimes committed, with 
perfect impunity, in Popish convents. In New 
York, every effort seems to be making, by the pres- 
ent legislature of that state, to suppress immorality. 
A bill is now before that body, making adultery 
a penitentiary offence ; yet Popish priests are build- 
ing nunneries there, and if Roman Catholic ladies 
think it proper to hold a fair to collect money for the 
building of those nunneries, these very New Yorkers 
will contribute their money freely; and thus, this 
ill-placed liberality, which Americans bestow, not 
only there but elsewhere, becomes the cause of 
evils which they seem desirous to crush. 

How is it with us in Massachusetts ? Look at 
our statute book, and if we are to judge from that, 
of the utter detestation with which our people look 
upon immorality of every kind, we deserve to be 
considered paragons of propriety. Should there be 
amongst us a house, even of equivocal fame^ our 
guardians of the night and civil officers are allowed 
to demand entrance into it at any hour, and if re- 
fused, they may use force. Yet we have convents 
amongst us, nunneries and nuns too. Poor help- 
less females are confined in them, but not an officer 
in the state will presume to enter. If admission is 
asked, it may or may not be given by the mother 
abbess or one of the reverend bullies of the insti- 
tution ; but no force must be used. The poor 
imprisoned victims, whether content or not with 
her station, must bear it without a groan or a 
murmur. 

This should not be m any civilized country ; and 
J will venture the assertion, rhat it could not con- 
tinue one hour, at least among the moral and chari- 
table people of Boston, were they not utterly un- 



134 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

acquainted with ftie iniquities of the Roinish 
church. 

This fully explains the opposition to the circula- 
tion of the Wandering Jew by the infallible church. 

I have given the reader but a faint view of the 
persecutions of Popery, down to the close of the 
fifteenth century, and revolting as they are, there 
is no record to be found from which we can even 
infer, that the church has ever altered her doctrine 
or practice, on the subject of exterminating here- 
tics, namely, all who are not Roman Catholics. If 
there were any such record, it could not have 
escaped my notice. Some Pope or some council 
would, long since, have given it to the world. 

I was, as has been stated, born a Roman Catholic, 
and educated a priest in that church. I solemnly 
declare to you, fellow-citizens of my adopted coun- 
try, that nothing has been more forcibly impressed 
upon my mind, by my teachers, when a boy — 
by the priest to whom I confessed when young — 
by the professors under whom I read Popish theol- 
ogy — or by the bishop who ordained me, and with 
whom I lived subsequently as chaplain — than the 
obligation I was under of extirpating heresy, by 
argument, if possible ; and, if not, by any other 
means, even to the shedding of blood. And there 
is not now, in this country, an Irish priest nor an 
Irish* Roman Catholic, and true son of the church, 
who does not believe that, if he could collect all 
the heretics in the United States, and form them 
into one pile, he would be serving God in applying 
a torch to it. And, incredible as it may appear to 
you, their church teaches them that, in doing so, 
they would be serving you. 

The doctrine is taught now, as it was in past 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 135 

age5, by their priests, that the hodij must he de- 
stroyed^ for the good of the soul. " It is a benefit." 
say the pious Popish priests, ''to heretics to he 
killed ; the fewer will he his sins, a7id the shorter 
will be his hell P^ You naturally shudder at this 
doctrine, but it is not many years since Leo XII. 
in one of his hulls of jubilee, or indulgence to the 
faithful, announces publicly, and without shame, 
or sorrow, proclaims to Catholics, his beloved sub- 
jects, that in order to obtain the indulgence granted 
by that bull of jubilee, there are two conditions, 
without which, they can derive no benefit from it, 
namely, the exaltation of the holy mother church, 
and the extirpation of heresy. This " blessed 
bulP^ was published in 1825, and directed to the 
archbishop of Baltimore, and all other Popish bish- 
ops in the United States, to be made such use of 
as their lordships may think proper ! 

Will you believe it, Americans, that this doctrine 
is taught, this very day, in the college of Maynooth, 
Ireland. You will find it in DeLaHogue's Tract. 
Theolog. ch. viii. p. 404, of the Dublin edition. 
No priest or bishop will question the authority of 
Dr. De La Hogue. He has been professor in that col- 
lege for nearly half a century. I must, however, 
add here, for the information of all who are unac- 
quainted with the doctrine of the pious frauds prac- 
tised by Rv)mish priests, that their respective bishops, 
or in his absence, the vicar-general, can give any of 
them a dispensation to deny any truth rr to tell 
any falsehood for the "exaltation of holy mother 
church." I have received such dispensations my- 
self, but, not having the fear of the Pope before my 
eyes, I took the liberty of disregarding them. 

Many will ask me, Why have you not made 
t ese things known before now? There were 
many reasons why I suppressed them. 



136 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

I knew my motives, however disinterested, might 
then be questioned ; secondly, the pubUc mind was 
not prepared for the developments which I have 
made. Thirdly, my love of peace and quietness 
induced me to withdraw to a part of the country, 
distant from the scene of ray controversy, hoping 
that the miscreant priests and bishops of the Rom- 
ish church would permit me to pursue my new 
profession of the law, without interruption. But 
in this, as I ought to have known, I was disap- 
pointed. Although I have not, since I left Phila- 
delphia, until very recently, even replied to the cal- 
umnies which vagabond Irish priests who infest 
this country, and the still greater vagabond bishops 
who govern them, together with the tools which 
they keep in their employment, have heaped 
upon me ; still the)^ have, in the true spirit of their 
vocation^ never ceased to pursue me with their 
vengeance. 

No sooner had I abjured the Pope, disregarded his 
hulls, and thereby become a heretic, than they had me 
burnt in effigy ! But much more gratified would 
they be, had they my person in the place of the 
effigy. I still remained unmoved. Soon after this, 
Bishop England, of Charleston, South Carolina, es- 
tablished a press, called the '• Catholic Miscellany," 
Vv'hose columns teemed, for months, — almost foi 
years, — with the grossest and vilest abuse against 
me ; yet while this restless demagogue, who is now 
in his grave, was spewing forth his filthy abuse, 1 
was prospering in my profession, and partially re- 
covering my health, which I thought was radically 
destroyed by the persecutions I suffered in Phila« 
delphia ; and thus, while the Pope in Rome, and the 
Romish bishops and priests of this country, were 
cursing me, Heaven was blessing my efforts and 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 137 

gaining me the confidence of the virtuous and good, 
whom I had the pleasure of meeting in my inter- 
course with the world. 

Strange indeed are the practices of Papists ! 
Previous to my heresy in Philadelphia, there was 
not in that city a more popular man — not another 
more respected ; I may almost say, that there was no 
man, of any pursuit or calling, whose friendship 
was more courted. Yet the moment I committed 
the unpardonable sin of differing with the Pope of 
Rome, every one of his^ faithful children, not only 
there but throughout the world, was bound by his 
oath of allegiance to persecute me in every possible 
way. 

Never forget, Americans, that the same oath of 
allegiance, which binds them to persecute me, is 
also binding on them to persecute and destroy you. 
Some of you will say, this cannot be. A church, 
numbering among her priests such men as Massillon, 
Fenelon, Chevereux, and Taylor of Boston, can- 
not entertain, much less command, a spirit of perse- 
cution. True, as far as we can judge, these were 
godly men. They would be an honor to any reli- 
gion. But in the Popish church, they were like 
stars that strayed from their homes, and losing 
their way, fell, by accident, upon the dark firma- 
ment of sin and Popery ; but even there, their na- 
tive light could not be obscured ; on the contrary, 
the darker the clouds around them, the more beau- 
tiful and brilliant did their light appear. Poor 
Taylor, — " Peace be to thy memory, — we have 
been friends together." Methinks I can, even now, 
feel the warm pressure of thy hand, see the chari- 
ties of thy soul beaming in thy speaking eye and 
gentle countenance, yet thou too had been consid- 
ered almost a heretic in the city of New York, and 



138 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

would have been denounced as such by the rude 
and vulgar bishop of that diocese, had not the ami- 
able Chevereux interfered. 

Often have I regretted that this Mr. Taylor, who 
was my classmate, and companion of my youth, 
had not, in addition to his private virtues, more 
fortitude and decision of character. He was the 
Erasmus of his day, in the United States. He was 
born and educated a gentleman ; so was the amia- 
ble but timid Erasmus. He was educated a Ro- 
man Catholic ; so was Erasmus. He was a chaste 
and elegant classical scholar ; so ivas Erasmus. 
Taylor, knowing full well the corruptions of the 
Romish church, went from New York to Rome, 
about the year 1822, in order to induce the Pope 
to modify such of its doctrines as were objection- 
able in this country. But he wanted courage, and 
hastily retreated back, lest he should be consigned 
to the inquisition. Erasmus, too, wanted courage, 
a quality as necessary for a reformer as it is to a 
general in storming a city and hence it is ; that those 
two amiable men, similar in character and dispo- 
sition, though living in ages widely apart, have 
lived ostensibly members of a church, whose doc- 
trines they loathed from the very bottom of their 
souls. 

This might have been the temper, the character, 
and the cause, why such men as Massillon and 
Fenelon have lived and died Roman Catholics. 
They felt, probably, as Erasmus did, when he said, 
"It is dangerous to speak, and dangerous to be si- 
lent." " I fear," said he, in another place, " that 
if a tumult arose, I should be like Peter in his 
fall." It is not at all strange, that such men as 
we have spoken of, should have contented them- 
selves with having inculcated virtue, and de- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 139 

nounced vice. There were such men in all asfes, 



and, as a modern writer expresses it, '' in all great re- 
ligious movements there are undecided characteis." 
But let it be borne in mind, that even great and 
good as they seemed to be, and eloquent and 
pious as they apf)eared, still they are only excep- 
tions in the great body of the advocates of Popery. 

No wonder Americans look back to those lights 
in the dark and bloody wilderness of Popery. It 
is refreshing to see them. They are green spots in 
the deserts made barren and desolate, by Popish 
iniquities ; and long may their memories shine in 
unclouded lustre. 

It is pleasant to the historian, who is wearied 
and disgusted with contemplating the past and 
oresent horrors of Popery, to turn for a moment 
from the frightful spectacle, and rest in devout con- 
templation on the lives of those comparatively ex- 
cellent men. How mistaken are those would-be 
philanthropists, who, at the present time, teach 
Americans to infer, that, because those were good 
and holy men, possessing a pious and forgiving 
spirit, it follows that the Papist church, her bish- 
ops and priests, entertain a similar spirit. This is 
equivalent to telling them that all history, past and 
present, is false, a mere romance, the dream of 
madmen. It is equivalent to telling them that the 
very history and records of the lives of Fenelon, 
and Massillon, &c., were entitled to no credit. 
Who can read, and not see that Rome has spilt 
oceans of blood to enforce her cruel creed ! Who 
can read, and not see that she has squandered 
treasures enough to relieve the poor of civilized 
Europe, in establishing and keeping up a despotism 
inimical to man and hateful to God ! 

The Papists, even in this country, do not deny 



140 SFNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

that they intend to eradicate heresy, and to uses 
every means which their church considers legitimate 
to effect that purpose. This the priests preach 
from their pulpits ; this they tell you to your beards. 
They admit their determination to bring these 
United States, if possible, under the spiritual con- 
trol of the court of Rome. They use the word 
spiritual, in utter contempt of your understanding, 
to deceive you, and while using it, they laugh at 
your credulity. Popish spiritual control, spiritual 
allegiance ! It is almost incredible that any body 
of men should have the impudence to come for- 
ward, in the nineteenth century, and talk of spir- 
itual allegiance to his royal holiness the King of 
Rome. 

They admit their determination to possess this 
country, and have the modesty to ask you to give 
them lands and churches, and means to accom- 
plish their object, and effectuate your destruction. 
Their next step will be to quarter upon you an ar- 
my of friars, Jesuits, or monks, who will carry at 
the point of the bayonet what is left undone by 
duplicity, treachery, and intrigue. This has been 
the fate of every country where Popery has found 
a resting place, and America is the only nation 
which, for the last three centuries, has giveri 
them such a footing. They tried what they could 
do in China. They succeeded in establishing sev- 
eral bishoprics, Jesuit convents, nunneries, monk- 
houses and churches, among the peaceable and quiet 
Chinese ; but happening to differ among themselves 
on the subject of their respective temporal rights, 
they, as in duty bound, referred their differences to 
the Pope. This movement came to the ears of the 
emperor of China, whom they had so long and 
so successfully deceived by the cant words, spirit' 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 141 

ual allegiance to the Pope. The parties were 
summoned before his commissioner to ascertain 
what was meant by spiritual allegiance. They 
tried to explain it. but all their ingenuity, all their 
subtity, could not satisfy the commissioner that 
spiritual allegiance meant any thing else than what 
it fairly expressed, and as soon as he found that it 
meant, in the eyes of the Pope and the Romish 
church, things real and tangible, such as real estate, 
the conveying it from the rightful owner under 
the laws of the land, to another under the laws 
of the Pope, who lived in Rome, he satisfied him- 
self, that the spiritual supremacy of the Pope 
meant, among other things, the power to govern 
the kingdoms of the earth ; to give away, and take 
them away, to whom and from whom, his royal 
holiness pleased. The emperor instantly issued an 
order, directing that every Roman Catholic bishop, 
priest, friar, Jesuit, monk, and nun, within his em- 
pire, should quit, within a given time, on pain of 
losing their heads. Many of them disobeyed the 
order and were executed, and their churches lev- 
elled to the ground. 

The Chinese had no objection to Papists w^or- 
shipping God, according to the dictates of their own 
conscience ; but as soon as it was discovered that 
they owed spiritual allegiance to a foreign power, 
they deemed it prudent to remove them from the 
country. Bat the Chinese are barbarians ^ and it 
seems reserved for this new world of ours, to in- 
terpret properly the meaning of spiritual allegiance, 
and in all differences, between our citizens and the 
agents of the Pope, as to the temporalities of the 
Romish church, to lay the subject before his royal 
holiness^ and be governed by his decision. 

Witness the difference between Bishop Hughes 



142 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

of New York, and the trustees of a Roman Catholic 
church in Buffalo, only a few weeks ago. Witness 
that in New Orleans, between the bishop and the 
trustees of the Romau Catholic church. All these 
were referred to the Pope, w^ho decided the matter, 
without any respect or regard to the laws of this gov- 
ernment. Call you this spiritual allegiance ? Call 
you this an exercise of spiritual power, on the part 
of his royal holiness the Pope ? Yes, you do ; and 
it would not much surprise me, if the Papists of this 
very city of Boston should recommend to its legis- 
lature, to lay the difficulties between themselves 
and the state of South Carolina, before the Pope 
of Rome for adjudication. 

Should the day ever arrive, when the Papists 
have a majority in your legislature, and a differ- 
ence should occur between these states," the Pope 
will be called in to decide it. I am at a loss to 
know how, even in these days of transcendental- 
ism, any other Tneaning can be given to spiritual 
allegiance^ than that w^hich the Roman Catholic 
gives it in practice. They consider the Pope, as 
the spiritual head of the church, has, a fortiori^ 
a divine right to be the head and sovereign of the 
world. This is the sense in which Catholics under- 
stand and act upon it, and swear to support the 
Pope, as the supreme arbiter of the destinies of the 
world. The Chinese understood this. The em- 
peror of Russia understands it at the present day; 
and though a Catholic himself, no priest or bishop, 
within his vast dominions, dare avow any allegiance, 
spiritual or temporal, to the king or Pope of Rome. 
The holy synod of St. Petersburg, Russia, have 
notified the Catholic missionaries, who have in- 
cited rebellion, and interfered with the civil author- 
ities in Georgia, to renounce their Intercourse with 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 143 

the see of Rome, or quit the country. But Ameri- 
cans, in the alembic of their fertile brains, have 
manufactured a definition for spiritual allegiance, 
peculiarly their own. for whicii the Papists are so 
much obliged to them, that whenever an opportu- 
nity of knocking out the aforesaid brains occurs, 
they will do so. Witness in the Philadelphia riots. 
&c., &c., strong proofs of the spirituality of that 
allegiance which Catholics owe to the Pope. 

Permit me to give you another evidence of the 
nature of that allegiance to the Pope of Rome, to 
which, I have heretofore alluded. It is to be found 
in the massacre of the Huguenots, by Roman 
Catholics. There is no event in the history of 
France, with which the world is more familiar, 
than this. Several historians have related it with 
great minuteness and much elegance. To these I 
can add nothing of my own, and the reader is 
more indebted to them, for the following statement, 
than to myself. 

Massacre of the Huguenots. 

This bloody massacre took place immediately 
after the conclusion of the treaty of St. Germain, 
at which the hostilities which had so long existed 
between the Catholics and Protestants in France, 
were suspended, or, as the Protestants believed, 
were entirely terminated. The sufferings of the 
Protestants, up to the conclusion of that treaty, 
were truly great. Their property was wasted ; 
their beautiful chateaus were burned and levelled 
to the ground ; their flourishing vineyards were 
destroyed, and they themselves were left, reduced 
in property and numbers ; but great as were their 
calamities, the spirit which lived within them waa 
not quenched. Their hearts, though oppressed, 
7 



144 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

were not broken. The love of God bore them up 
against all their trials and privations. Among those 
who suffered most in the Protestant cause, was the 
brave and pious Admiral Coligny, who, after the 
treaty of St. Germain, and the destruction of his 
beautulii estates by order of the Popish and bloody 
Catharine, retired to Rochelle. Even here there 
was no safety for him. The licentious queen, and 
her paramours, consisting of priests, determined on 
his destruction. It is said of this woman, that she 
occupied t\vel\re years of her life in instructing her 
son Charles to swear, to blaspheme, to break his 
word, and to disguise his thoughts as well as face. 
We are told by contemporary historians, that this 
blessed dmio^hter of the holy church supplied him 
with small animals, when a child, and a sharp 
sword to cut off their heads, and shed their blood 
by stabbing them ; all this to familiarize him with 
the shedding of blood, and that at some future day 
he might indulge in the same amusement upon a 
larger scale, in cutting off the heads and stabbing 
heretics and Protestants. The persecutions of the 
Huguenots are known almost to all readers ; few 
there are, who are not familiar with them. The 
illustrious characters, who headed the Protestant 
cause in those days, are known to all Protestant 
Americans, but none of them, perhaps, more inti- 
mately than the great Coligny, who was one of 
the first martyrs to that wretched Popish thing, in 
the shape of a woman, Catharine de Medicis, 
regent of France. I trust, therefore, the reader 
will pardon me for giving a few incidents in the 
life of this nobleman and martyr, during one of the 
regencies of this Popish queen Catharine. After 
the marriage of Henry of Navarre, Coligny, as we 
are told, suddenly retired from the banquet given 



AS IT WAS AND AS II 13. 145 

upon the occasion at the Louvre. It was remarked 
that he seemed sad and dejected. He retired to 
his hotel, which he would have gladly left and re- 
turned home, but dreading that he might alarm his 
wife, he preferred writing to her, explaining mat- 
ters as far as he could, under existing circumstances. 
The letter is so interesting, so affectionate, and 
altogether so worthy of the good man, that I can- 
not refrain from laying it before my readers. It 
was as follows : — 

^' My very dear and much beloved wife : 

" This day, was performed the cere- 
mony of marriage between the king's sister and 
the king of Navarre. The ensuing three or four 
days will be spent in amusements, banquets, 
masks, and sham-fights. The king has assured 
me that, immediately afterwards, he will give 
me some days to hear the complaints, made in 
divers parts of the kingdom, touching the edict of 
pacification, which is violated there. It is with 
good reason that I attend to this matter as much as 
possible ; for, though I have a strong wish to see 
you, still you would be angry with me (as I think) 
if I were remiss in such an affair, and harm came 
of it from my neglect to do my duty. At any 
rate, this delay will not retard my departure 
from this place so long bat that I shall have leave 
to quit it next week. If I had regard to myself 
alone, I had much rather be with you than stay 
longer here, for reasons which I will tell you 
But we ought to consider the public welfare as far 
more important than our private benefit. I have 
some other things to tell you, as soon as I shall 
have the means to see you — :^vhich I desire, day 
and night. As for the news that I have to tell you, 



146 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



they are these : This day, at four in the after- 
noon, the bells were rung, when tlie mass of the 
bride was chanted. The king of Navarre walked 
abont the while in an open place near the church, 
with some gentlemen of our religion who had ac- 
companied him. There are other little particulars 
which I omit, intending to tell you them when I 
see you. Whereupon I pray God, my most dear 
and beloved wife, to have you in his holy keeping. 
From Paris, this 18th of August, 1572. 

'' Three days back I was tormented with colic 
and pain in the loins. But this complaint lasted 
only eight or ten hours, thanks be to God, through 
whose goodness I am now delivered from those 
pains. Be assured on my part, that amidst these 
festivities and pastimes, I will not give offence to 
any one. Adieu, once more, 

" Your loving husband, 

" Chastillon." 

After having despatched the above letter, Coligny 
deemed it his duty to see the king before he left 
Paris. His sole object in so doing was to obtain, 
if possible, some concessions, or at least some 
guarantee for the future protection of the persecuted 
Protestants, of whom he was a member. 

The king received him well, promised him all 
he asked ; but the king consulted the Pope's nun- 
cio, who was then in the city, and that holy man 
advised him to keep no faith with that Protestant 
Coligny, but on the contrary, to make all the use 
he could of him, in order the more effectually to 
accomplish the destruction of the heretical band to 
'vhich he belonged. After receiving this Christian 
advice, the king became apparently more friendly 
to Coligny, and went so far as to promise him a 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 147 

safe escort on his way home. "If you approve 
of it," said the king to Cohgiiy, '• I will send for the 
guard of my Arquebusiers for the greater safety of 
all, for fear they miglit unawares do you a mis- 
chief; and they shall come under afficers who are 
known to you."^ The generous and unsuspecting 
Christian, Coligny, accepted the offer of the guards^ 
and tweNe hundred of them were ordered into the 
city. TbBre were many of the Protestants in the 
city, whc on seeing this array of troops, felt alarmed 
for the /afety of their friend Coligny ; theywhis- 
pered their fears to the brave warrior, who until 
then did not even dream of treachery. But now, 
fearing that something might be wrong, he re- 
solved to see the queen mother. She expected 
this, and granted him an inteiview with great appa- 
rent pleasure. As soon as he commenced to sug- 
gest any fears or apprehensions of treachery, this 
holi/ daughter of the church, suddenly interrupting 
him, exclaiming, "Good God, sir admiral," said she, 
"let us enjoy ourselves while these festivities con- 
tinue. I promise you on the faith of a queen, that 
in four day^ I will make you contented, and those 
of your religion." Coligny had now the word of a 
king, and the honor of a queen, as a guarantee for 
his own safety, and that of the' Protestants in France. 
Who could any longer doubt that they were safe ? 
Who could believe that a king would violate a 
solemn promise freely given? Who could question 
the honor of a lady and the promise of a queen? 
Who would venture to assert that a mother would 
not use her best effort to redeem the honor and 
plighted faith of a son, and that son a king ? No one 
but a Roman Catholic could doubt it. Charles was 
a Roman Catholic king. His church taught him, 
that Ro faith was to be kept with heretics. Coligny 



148 SYN^PSiS OF POPERY, 

was a heretic. Catharine, the queen mother, was a 
Roman CathoHc ; hei church taught her to keep 
no faith with heretics, but to "destroy them, root 
and branch, under pain of eternal damnation." 
Heritici destruendi is the doctrine of the Roman 
Catholic church ; and accordingly, on the evening 
of that very day on which Coligny had an audi- 
ence with the queen, these distinguished and pious 
children of the holy Roman CathoUc church ap- 
pointed an interview with the Pope's nuncio, and 
after that holy man sung the Veni Creator Spiritus, 
(a hymn which they inv^ariably sing, when laying 
any plan for the destruction of heretics,) these three 
worthy children of the infallible church resolved to 
send for the " king's assassin," a man named Mau- 
reval, and ordered him to assassinate Coligny. It 
must be observed here, that the Pope's legate al- 
lowed Charles a.nd his mother to keep an assassin, 
to cut down such thistles or tares as the devil may 
plant in the vineyard of the holy see. Soon after 
this, Coligny had occasion to go out on some busi- 
ness. The Popish assassin pursued him at a 
distance, secreted himself in a house where he 
knew he could deliberately shoot at him ; he did 
so, but the Avound, though severe in the extreme, 
did not prove mortal. Among the first who visited 
him were the king and his mother ; and such was 
the apparent grief of Catharine, that she shed tears 
for the sufferings of the warrior. The good son of 
this good mother mingled his tears with hers, 
promising that the assassin, whoever he was, should 
be brought to condign punishment ; but need I now 
tell you, Americans, that the tears of this Popish 
queen, for the sufferings of this Protestant, were 
like those of the hyena, that moans in the most 
piteous strains, while sucking the life-blood of its 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 149 

victim ? Need I tell you they were like those of the 
crocodile, which sheds them in abundance while 
devouring its prey ? Need I inform you that by 
her promises of future protection, she resembled the 
filthy buzzard, which spreads its wings over the 
body or carcass of its prey, while plunging its beak 
into its very entrails ? And such 1 tell you now, 
as I have told you before, Americans, and shall tell 
you while I live, is the sympathy, and such the 
protection which every good mother and son of the 
holy Roman Catholic church would extend to 
you, your Protestant religion and its followers, in 
these United States. 

We will now pass over the various meetings held 
by the king, his mother, queen Catharine, and the 
Pope's nuncio, for the purpose of devising ways 
and means, not for the death of Coligny, but for 
the destruction of all the Protestants in France. 
To detail these would be a tedious undertaking ; 
and not more tedious than revolting to the best 
feelings of humanity. Depravity was reduced to a 
science in the court of Catharine, and her son 
Charles. She employed even her ladies of honor 
for the seduction of her young nobility. They 
were ladies — I should say human things — select- 
ed for their beauty, and trained up by this royal 
mother in the Romish church, in habits of ut- 
ter abandonment to seduction and lasciviousness. 
Young men of honor, virtue, and patriotism, 
were introduced to them, by Catharine, especially 
those who were at all suspected of being favorable 
to Protestantism. These maids were required to 
ascertain from these young noblemen who, and 
how many of their young friends were friendly to 
the cause of Protestantism, with a view of marking 
them for extermination, as soon as herself and the 



150 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

Pope's legate should deem it expedient to do so. 
The hour at last arrived, when the holy trio deemed 
it expedient to order a general massacre of the Prot- 
estants. The order was issued. The bells of 
the Roman Catholic churches were rung, and the 
royal order '' Kill ! kill ! kill ! " all, was issued by 
the king, and repeated by his Roman Catholic 
mother. I coald. not if I would, nor would I if I 
could, describe the scene that followed. Suffice it 
to say, that particular orders were given not to 
spare Admiral Coligny. Blameless as was his life, 
and devoted as he v.^a-s to his king and government, 
yet he was a Protestant, and must die, and that by 
the hand of a Popish assassin. The holy church 
reserved to herself the glory of murdering this 
heretic. As soon as the order to murder was given, 
a rush was made towards the residence of Coligny. 
They entered his chamber, and to use the language 
of another, '• they found him sitting in an arm- 
chair, his arms folded, his eyes half upturned 
with angelic serenity towards heaven, looking the 
image of a righteous man falling asleep in the 
Lord. One of the murderers, a pious Catholic, called 
Bcsma, fixing his fiendish eye upon the admiral, 
asked him, ' Art thou the admiral ? ' pointing his 
sword at him at the same time. ' I am the admi- 
ral,' replied Coligny. 'Young man, thou shouldst 
have regard for my age and infirmities : ' " but the 
murderer plunged his sword into the Christian 
hero's breast, pulled it out, and thrust it in again. 
Thus died this noble Protestant ! Thus died the 
veteran Coligny, by the hands of a Popish boy ! 
And for what? He believed in the Bible — he was 
a Protestant. And thus, fellow Protestants of the 
United States, will your posterity be sacrificed, for 
.similar crimes, unless God in his mercy drive from 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 151 

your land, and mine by adoption, every vestige of 
the Popish religion. No sooner was Coligny put 
to death, than his head was cut off and presented to 
Queen Catharine, who sent for her perfumer, and 
ordered it to be embahned and forwarded to the 
Pope, as a mark of her devotion to the holy see. 
But even this did not satisfy the queen. Her 
Popish bloodhounds, on hearing of Coligny's mur- 
der, rushed through the streets to his apartments, 
searching every where for his mangled body, and 
having found it, a general cry was raised, " The 
admiral! the admiral!" They tied his legs and 
his arms together, and dragged them through the 
streets shouting, "Here he comes, the admiral!" 
One cut off his ears, another his legs, another his 
nose, hands, &c. They abandoned the body, to 
let the boys amuse themselves by inspecting it, 
and then tumbled it into the river. But the zeal- 
ous Catharine was not satisfied yet. This good 
daughter of the Pope ordered the river to be 
dragged, until what remained of Coligny was 
found, and then ordered it to be hung in chains on 
a gibbet at a place called Mountfacon. A contem- 
porary writer, a Roman Catholic, speaking of this, 
says: " the road to Mountfacon was a scene of in- 
cessant bustle, created by the gentlemen of Catha- 
rine's court, who, in splendid dresses and perfumed 
with essences, went to insult the relics of Coligny. 
Catharine also went with her numerous retinue. 
Charles accompanied his mother. On arriving be- 
fore the gallows, the courtiers turned away their 
heads, and held their noses on account of the 
stench arising from the half putrefied remains. 
' Poh .' ' said Charles and his mother, to their cour- 
tiers, ^ the dead body of a heretic always smells 
well.' " On returning home she -eonsulted with 
7* 



J 52 



her confessor, who advised her, now that the devil 
had the heretic's body, it would be well to have a 
solemn high mass for the occasion, to be said at the 
church of St. Germain, at which Charles and his 
mother attended, and a Te Deum was sung in 
honor of the glorious victory gained by the church, 
by the destruction of so many heretics. 

As soon as the Pope heard this news, his holi- 
ness despatched a special messenger to France, to 
congratulate the king on having " caught so many 
heretics in one net." So joyous and elated did his 
royal holiness appear, that he offered a high reward 
for the best engraving of the massacre ; having, on 
one side, as a motto, " the triumph of the 
CHURCH ; " and on the other, " the pontiff approves 
OF THE MURDER OF coLiGNY." This cngraviug is 
now to be seen in the Vatican of Rome. 

The number of those who were massacred on 
St. Bartholomew's day is variously stated. Mazary 
makes it thirty thousand ; others over sixty : but 
the Pope's nuncio, who was on the spot during the 
massacre, in a letter to the Pope, tells him, "the 
number was so great it loas iinpossible to esti- 
mate it ^ 9 

Recollect, American Protestants, that this massa- 
cre, and others to which I have alluded, was net 
the work of a. few fanatics. It was the work of a 
nation, by their representative, the king, empowered 
to do so by the head of the Roman Catholic church. 
In vain is it for Papists to tell us that all this blood- 
shedding and destruction of human life was the 
work of a iQ\Y, with which the church was nei- 
ther chargeable nor accountable. Americans may be- 
lieve them if they will. Let them believe. " There 
are none so blind as those who will not see." If 
neither the testimony of historv. nor a statement 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 153 

a 

of facts, bearing all the necessary evidence of truth, 
will convince them, vain indeed are my efforts to 
do so. But there is no impropriety in my earnestly 
and solemnly appealing to Americans, and suggest- 
ing one or two questions, which they should put 
to any Roman Catholic who may deny that the 
church ever sanctioned those evil deeds of which I 
have spoken. Have you any record of the fact, that 
the church ever discountenanced the destruction of 
heretics? Did the Popish authorities ever deliver 
up those whom they knew to have murdered her- 
etics to the civil tribunals ? Were there ever any 
heretics murdered, as such, except by the advice, 
counsel, and connivance of the Popish church and 
her priests ? If there were, in what country, in 
v/hat age, and in what reign ? Until these ques- 
tions can be truly answered, you are not to be satis- 
fied. But why will Americans, for a moment, en- 
tertain a doubt upon the subject ? Popish histori- 
ans never deny it. The actions of Papists all over 
the world proclaim it. The church of Rome has 
ever thirsted for the blood of heretics. She now 
yearns for an opportunity of shedding it again ; all 
for the purpose of " purifying the earth of heresy." 
Do you not see that her conduct, in all ages and 
all places where she had opportunities, confirms 
this? Do you not even see, that in this country, 
the members of that church can scarcely keep their 
hands off you ; and so bloody are the sentim.ents 
which they inherit, that, for want of other subjects, 
they will sometimes shed that of each other ? 
What would they not have done, a few weeks ago, 
in Philadelphia, had they the power ? What in 
New York ? What in Boston, or any where else in 
the United States ? Do you not see, in all your in- 
tercourse with them, the iU-concealed hatred which 



154. SYX0PSi5 OF POPERY, 

they bear you ? If you have any charitable institu- 
tions for the support of Protestants, wiii they aid 
you ? If you hold a fair for the purpose of build- 
ing a church, or for an}' other Protestant purpose. 
will they attend it and purchase from you ? They 
will not. If they do, they commit a sin against the 
church, and the power of absolving from that sin 
is reserved for the bishop of the diocese. It is a 
reserved case, as the church terms it. It is only by 
virtue of a dispensation, granted by the Pope to 
this country, that a Roman Catholic is even allowed 
to attend the funeral of a Protestant ; and should he 
go into one of your churches, even though there 
was no service at the time, if he is a true son of 
the church, he will hasten to his priest and obtain 
absolution for that special crime. Yet, if they want 
churches built, you will furnish them with money. 
If they want land to build them upon, you will give 
it to them. Is this wise in you ? You are denounced 
in those churches as heretics; your religion ridi- 
culed, and yourselves laughed at. Your motives 
are undoubtedly good. You believe, because you do 
not know to the contrary, that, by your contribu- 
tions, you are advancing the cause of morality. 
You do not reflect — and perhaps the idea never 
occurred to you — that there is a wide difference 
between the religion of a Protestant and that of a 
Papist. That of the Protestant teaches him to be a 
moral and virtuous man ; whereas, that of the Pa- 
pist has not the remotest connection with virtue. 
A Catholic need not dream of virtue, and yet be a 
member of that church. 

The most atrocious villain, as an eminent writer 
expresses it, may be rigidly dev^out, and without any 
shock to public sentiment in Catholic countries, or 
even amon^ Roman Catholics in the United States 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 155 

Religion, as the same writer says, and as we all 
know, at least as many of us as have been in those 
countries, and who are acquamted with Catholics in 
this, is a passion^ an excuse^ a refuge^ but never -^ 
check. It is called by Papists themselves refugium 
peccatorum. Hence ii is, that priests may bedrunk- 
ards, and their flocks never think the worse of them. 
I have known some of them, whose private rooms 
where they heard confessions, were sinks of de- 
baucheries, which a regard for public decency pre- 
vents me from mentioning. I have known females, 
who have been seduced by them, and who after- 
wards regularly went to confession, under the 
impression which every Catholic is taught to feel, 
that no matter what a priest does, provided he 
speaks the language of the church. Don't mind 
what he does, but mind luhat he speaks, is a proverb 
among the poor Irish Papists. None of them dare 
look me in the face and deny this, and yet these 
wretches talk of morals. But what think you, 
Protestants, of this kind of morality or of the church 
which does not even forbid it, and only requires to 
have it "concealed from JiereticsV^ Do you desire 
it propagated amongst you ? Do you wish your 
children to learn it ? No virtuous daughter or 
decent woman should ever venture under the same 
roof with those men. 

Paganism, in its worst stages, was a stronger 
check to the passions than Popery. I will give you 
one instance of the abominations of Popery. Pa- 
pists believe in the doctrine of the i^eal presence 
of Christ, in the sacrament of the Eucharist. It 
IS the duty of every priest in that church to admin- 
ister this sacrament to the dying, and for this pur- 
pose, they consecrate a number of small wafers, 
made of flour and water, each of which, they pre- 



156 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

tend to believe, contains the body and bloody soul 
and divinity of our Lord and Saviour. Jesns Christ, 
or in other words, the Lord God himself. The 
priests carry with them, in a small box called pixis, 
anumber of them to be given to the sick and dying. 
There are but few of them in the United States, 
in whose breeches' pockets may not be found, at 
any hour of the day. at least a dozen of those gods. 
Can there be religion here ? Can there be morality 
among those men or their followers ? I would go 
further, and ask, Is there any thing in Paganism 
equally impious or more revolting to God or man? 
They know full well that such a creed cannot be 
sustained either by reason or Scripture, and hence 
it is, they want all power concentrated in the Pope 
of Rome, in order to extirpate their opponents, 
Protestant heretics. Papists understand the char- 
acter of Americans, and are well aware, that if suf- 
ficiently satisfied of the existence among them, of 
a sect who believed in a doctrine so absurd, and so 
impiously profane, as that of the real bodily pres- 
ence of Christ in the Eucharist^ they could not 
countenance them. My own impression is, that if 
the people of Boston, where I write, knew that 
Catholic priests taught their followers to believe, 
that they (the priests) could make god's by the 
dozen, carry them in their pockets, take them out 
when and where they pleased, and there kneel to 
them, in adoration, they would have them indicted 
under the statute against blasphemy. The Rev. 
Abner Kneeland was indicted because he denied 
the procession of the Holy Ghost, and found guilty 
of blasphemy. But what was his crime, when 
compared with that of Romish bishops and priests ! 
It was bad enough, to be sure, in the eyes of all 
Christian men, and few questioned the righteous- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 157 

ness of the verdict of his guilt. If a Pagan priest 
should arrive amongst us, bringing with him his 
gods, and worshipping them in our midst, should we 
sanction him ? I know not that our constitution 
forbids such a thing, but the reverence which v/e 
have for the one true God, our Jove of morality and 
good order, would forbid it. We would accuse and 
indict them for blasphemy. But is their blasphemy 
more hori-'d than that of the Romish church ? 

The Pagan priest hews his god out of wood; 
the Popish priest makes his out of flour and wa- 
ter. The Pagan priests convey their gods in some 
vehicle, from place to place, and stop to worship 
tl^em, wherever their inclination or devotion 
prompts them. The Romish priests carry theii^s in 
their pockets, or otherwise, as occasion or love of 
pomp may suggest. 

Where, Americans, is the difl'erence ? Which is 
the greater blasphemer ? Which is the bolder and 
more reckless violator of that great commandment, 
" / am the Lord thy God.^^ " Thou shalt have 
none other gods before me " ? You will not hesi- 
tate to decide. The Pagan may be honest in his 
belief: he may worship according to the light that 
is in him, or the knowledge that has reached him. 
He may never have seen the Gospel. The Day 
Star from on. high may never have arisen over 
him, or illumined his path ! " The morning upon 
the mountains " may perhaps never have gladdened 
his vision ; he may, to us at least, be excusable, 
and as far as we can see, without offence before 
God. But is the Romish priest, who makes his 
god out of flour and water, and worships it, sin- 
less ? Is he not an idolater ? What can be more 
blasphemous than to believe that a wafer, made of 
flour and water, can be changed, by the incanta- 



158 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

tions of a Romish priest, into the God of heaven 
and earth ! 

The Popish church teaches that the flour, of 
which the wafer is made, loses its substance, and 
all its natural properties, and is changed by the 
words of consecration into the Almighty God ; that 
is, it is no longer flour and water ; it is changed, — 
not spiritually, as Protestants believe, — but actu- 
ally and really becomes the body and bloody soul 
a7id divinity of Jesus Christ, such as it was when 
nailed to the cross, and as such tiiey worship the 
wafer. If this is not idolatry, I cannot understand 
what idolatry is. If this is not blasphemy, I wish 
some New England gentleman of the ministry, or 
the bar, would explain it, and tell me what they 
mean by their statute against blasphemy. 

Does blasphemy, in their estimation^ mean noth- 
ing ? or is it something introduced into our laws, 
only for the purpose of exercising the ingenuity of 
legal and ecclesiastical casuists ? Surely, if the word 
has any meaning whatever, in law or morals, in 
church or state ; if it can be enforced at all, and 
there is such a crime as blasphemy, it should be en- 
forced against the Romish priest or bishop, who 
bows and teaches his followers to bow, in adoration, 
to a piece of bread and water, and thus blasphe- 
mously insult, as far as poor mortals can, the great 
and living God. Surely, the state authority, which 
would institute a criminal prosecution for blas- 
phemy against Kneeland, because he did not. be- 
lieve the Holy Ghost to proceed " from the Father 
and the Son," and does not prosecute for blasphemy 
Popish priests, who believe, and teach their follow- 
ers to believe, that they can create, or rather man- 
ufacture as many gods as they please, out of flour 



AS IT WAS ANr> AS IT IS. l59 

and water, either neglects his duty, or his knowl- 
edge of it is very equivocal. 

Either this is the case, or the treatment of Knee- 
land originated in some cruel persecution. The lat- 
ter I am far from believing. 

As a citizen of this state, I would ask respect- 
fully, why proceedings, under the statute against 
blasphemy, are not immediately commenced against 
Popish priests ? Is it because Kneeland was friend- 
less and alone, that he was selected as a proper vic- 
tim ? and is it because Popish priests are supported 
by a large party, equally criminal with themselves, 
that they are spared? Not at all, say the sympathizers 
with Popery. Kneeland made a noise in his meet- 
ings; they were troublesome in the neighborhood 
where they were held. Be it so. I will not deny 
this, nor do I wish to be considered as the apologist 
of Kneeland, his blasphemies, or his meetings ; but 
1 would ask the prosecuting officer of the state, 
whether Kneeland's meetings were more noisy than 
Popish repealers ? Were they even half so turbu- 
lent or uproarious ? Let those Avhose duty it is an- 
swer the question, and tell us why priests are not 
prosecuted for blasphemy. I contend that if there 
is one blasphemy under the sun more revolting than 
another, it is that of believing and teaching that a 
wafer can be changed from what God made it, in- 
to that same Almighty God, by mumbling over it a 
few Latin words. It makes me shudder at the 
weakness of man, and the un'accountable influence 
of early education, to think that I myself once be- 
lieved in this horribly blasphemous doctrine. 

The doctrine of Popish priests in adoring a wa- 
fer made of bread and water, and their mode of 
manufacturing the v/afer into God, is not only bias- 
phemous, but extremely ludicrous. 



160 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



Has the reader ever seen a Popish priest in the- 
act of making, or metamorphosing bread and water 
into flesh and blood 1 If he has not, it would be 
well, if not profane, to witness it ; for never before 
has he seen such mountebank tricks. The priest, 
this great creator of flesh and blood out of flour 
and water, appears decked out in as many gew- 
gaws as would adorn a Pagan priestess, and about 
twice as many as would be necessary for a Jewish 
rabbi. Amid the ringing of small bells, dazzling 
lights, genuflections, crossings, incense, and a va- 
riety of other such " tricks before high Heaven," 
this clerical mountebank metamorphoses this wafer 
into God^ and exhibits it to his followers, whom he 
calls upon to go on their knees and adore it. This 
horrible practice should induce our philanthropists, 
who are sending vast sums abroad for the conver- 
sion ol the Pagan, to pause and ask themselves, 
whether there is, in the whole moral wilderness of 
Paganism, any thing worse, or half so bad, as that 
idolatry which we have at our own doors 1 

If a being from some unknown world, and to 
whom this world of ours was as little known as 
the one from which he came was to us, should, by 
accident or otherwise, arrive among us, and we 
were to take him into a Roman Catholic church 
during the celebration of mass, and there tell him, 
that the great actor in the service was making flesh 
and blood out of bread and water, and could actu- 
ally accomplish that feat, he would unhesitatingly 
award to these United States the credit of having 
among them some of the most accomplished jug- 
glers in the world. 

W"hafc are your Eastern fire-eaters, sword-swal- 
lowers, and dervises, to a Popish priest ? Why, it 
would be easier to swallow a rapier, ten feet long, 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 161 

or a ball of fire as large as the mountain Orizaba, 
than to metamorphose flour and water into the 
^' great and holy God, who created the heavens 
and the earth, and all that is therein." 

Let me not be accused of levity, or want of rever- 
ence to that Almighty Being, to whom I am indebt- 
ed for my creation and preservation, and on whom 
alone, through the merits of the Saviour, my hopes 
of salvation are placed. My only object is, to call 
the attention of my fellow-citizens to the absurd 
and profane doctrines of Popery ; and that having 
seen them, in their true colors, it is to be hoped 
they will find little favor from a thinking and reflect- 
ing people. 

It is extremely unpleasant to my feelings, thus 
to expose the profanity of a religion which 1 once 
professed, and inculcated upon the minds of others ; 
but the best atonement I can make for my uncon- 
scious offence to my God and my fellow-beings is, 
to acknowledge my error, and caution others against 
falling into the snares which an early education, re- 
ceived from priests and Jesuits, had precipitated me. 
The reader will therefore pardon me if I lay before 
him a few more Popish extravagances. 

It is generally known, that Papists believe in the 
doctrines of miracles. So do I, and so do all Chris- 
tians. But it is not so well known that the mira- 
cles, in which Protestants believe, diff'er widely from 
those which the Romish church teaches her fol- 
lowers. We believe the miracles recorded in the 
Holy Scriptures ; to these, however, the infallible 
church pays little or no attention, but hands us down 
a catalogue of miracles, for the truth of which she 
herself vouches, and calls upon all to receive them 
as the '' genuine article." It maybe edifying, and 
if not, it caa ;ot fail to be amusing to American 



J 62 



Protestants, to see a specimen or two of Popish 
miracles. I assure the reader, they are very fair 
ones, to my own personal knowledge, and consid- 
ered as such by every true Roman Catholic in this 
city of Boston as well as elsewhere. 

St. Hieronyinus, better known by the name Je- 
rome, who died early in the fifth century, relates 
the following miracle : — "After St. Hilary was ban- 
ished from France to Phrygia, he met in the wil- 
derness a huge Bactrian camel, and having seen, in 
a vision, that his camelship was possessed of the 
devil, he exorcised him, and the devil sprang out 
from him, running wild through the wilderness, 
leaving behind him a strong smell of brimstone." 
He tells us another miracle, with much gravity. 
"Paul the Hermit," says this saint, "happening to 
die in the wilderness, his body remained unburied, 
until discovered by St. Anthony. The saint being 
alone, and not having the means of digging a grave, 
nor strength enough to place in it the body of the 
hermit, prayed to the Virgin Mary to aid him in his 
difficulties. The result was, two lions, of the 
largest species, walked up to him, licked his hands, 
and told him that they would dig the grave them- 
selves with their feet, and place the body of Paul 
in it. They did so ; and having finished their busi- 
ness, went on their knees, asked the saint's blessing, 
and vanished in the woods. " 

Palladus, who lived in the fifth century, and 
was greatly distinguished in the Romish church, 
tells us of a hyena, which, in a certain wood in 
Greece, killed a sheep. The next day, a pious 
hermit, who happened to live in 'the neighbor- 
hood, was surprised at seeing this hyena at the 
door of his cave ; and on asking it what was the 
matter, the hyena addressed him in the following 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 163 

language : '' Holy father,' the odor of thy sanctity 
reached me ; I killed a sheep last night, and I carne 
to ask your absolution." The saint granted it, and 
the hyena departed in peace. We find in Butler'? 
Lives of the Saints, which is for sale in almost ah 
Roman Catholic bookstores, an account of some 
most extraordinary miracles, for the truth of which, 
the infallible church pledges her veracity. For 
instance ; when heretics cut off the head of St. 
Dennis, the saint took it up, put it under his arm, 
and marched off some miles with it. Butler relates 
another extraordinary miracle, and if American 
Protestants presume to doubt it, they may expect a 
bull from the Pope of Rome. 

A certain lady in Wales, named Winnefride, was 
addressed by a young prince, named Caradoc. But 
she, being a nun^ could not listen to his addresses. 
The young prince got impatient, and finally, in 
a fit of rage and disappointment, he pursued her in 
one of her walks, and cut off her head. A saint, 
by the name of Beuno, hearing of this outrage, 
went in pursuit of Caradoc, and having come up 
with him, he caused the earth to open and swallow 
him. Upon his returning where the null's head 
fell, he found that a well had opened, emitting a 
stream of the purest water, the drinking of which, 
to this day, is believed to cast out devils. When 
the holy St. Beuno looked at the head of the niiiij 
he took it up and kissed it, placed it on a stump 
and said mass. No sooner was the mass finished, 
than the beheaded nun jumped up, with her head 
on, as if nothing had happened. 

Come forward, Americans, if you dare, and- deny 
this miracle. The holy church vouches for Us 
truth. St. Patrick, the great patron of Daniel 
O'Connell, whom his holiness the Pope calls the 
greatssi laym^an livings performed some very ex- 



164 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



traordinary miracles, as we are told ; among them 
was the following : A poor boy strayed from home, 
and died of starvation, or something else, and 
the body was nearly devoured by hogs, when SJ;. 
Patrick, chancing to pass that way, discovered it in 
this mutilated condition. The holy saint touched 
it, and it instantly sprang into life, resuming its 
former shape and proportions. On another occa- 
sion, as we read in the Lives of the Saints, St. 
Patrick fed fourteen hundred people with the flesh 
of one cow, two wild boars, and two stags ; and 
what is more strange than all, the same old cow 
was seen, on the following morning, brisk and mer- 
rily grazing on the very same field where she was 
killed, cooked, and eaten by the multitude. 

We read of another very great miracle, which 
no Roman Catholic can doubt, without running the 
risk of being considered a heretic. St. Xavier, who 
is considered one of the most distinguished saints in 
the Romish church, had a valuable crucifix. On 
one of his journeys at sea, it fell overboard, much 
to his regret. When he arrived at his place of 
destination, he took a walk along shore, meditating 
on the power, grandeur, and infallibility of the 
mother of saints, and what was the first object that 
caught his eye ? Lo, and behold, he saw a crab 
moving towards him, bearing in its mouth the 
saint's crucifix, and continued to advance until he 
reverently laid it at his feet. No Roman Catholic 
writer, since the days of St. Xavier, questions the 
truth of this miracle. 

The Popish biographers of St. Xavier tell us of 
another . great miracle performed by him, the truth 
of which is attested by the infallible church. 
The devil tempted Xavier, and the ^^ old boy''' 
assumed the shape of a lovely female ; the sain» 
ordered her off, but she refused, and attacked him 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 1G5 

again on the same day; but the saint^ unwiUing to 
be annoyed any longer, spit in the devil's face, and 
he instantly fled, 

I cannot dismiss this subject without relating a 
few more of those miracles which Roman Catfio- 
lics believe. They may be seen in Belarmine's 
Treatise on the Holy Eucharist^ book iii. ch. 8. St. 
Anthony, of Padua, got into an argument with a 
heretic, concerning the doctrine of trajisubstantia- 
tion, or the changing of bread and water, by 
Romish priests, into the tiesh and blood of Jesus 
Christ. After arguing the question for a long 
time, the heretic proposed to St. Anthony to settle 
their controversy in the following manner : "I 
have a horse," said the he7'etic, "which I will kee|) 
fasting for three days ; at the expiration of that 
time, come with your host (an image) and I will 
meet you with my horse. I will pour out some 
grain to my horse, and you will hold the host be- 
fore him; if he leave the grain, and adores the 
host, I shall believe." They met, and St. An- 
thony addressed the horse in the following words. 
1 translate, literally, from that illustrious writer in 
the Roman church, Belarmine. 

" In virtue J and in the name of thy creator, 
whom I truly hold in my hand^ I command and 
enjoin thee. O horse ^ to come, and loith humility^ 
adore him.''^ The horse, instanter, left his corn, 
advanced totaards the host in the priesfs hand, 
and, devoutly kneeling, adored it as his God. 

St. Andrew, as we read in Romish history, was 
a man of great eminence and sanctity. Papists 
pray for his intercession daily. The infallible 
church informs us, that he performed some very 
great miracles I beg to give my readers one, as 
a sample of the many which he performed- 



166 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

The devil, armed with an axe, and accompanied 
by several minor devils, with clubs in their hands, 
made an attack upon the saint, whereupon he called 
upon St. John, the apostle, to rescue him. St. 
John lost no time in making his appearance, and 
summoning, some holy angels to aid him, v\^ith 
chains in their hands, he rescued St. Andrew from 
these devils, and chained every one of them to the 
spot ; whereupon, as we are informed in the Acts 
of the Saints^ St. Andrew burst into laughter, and 
the devils fell to screaming and crying mercy. 

In the year 1796, a work, entitled Official Me- 
moirs^ was published in Ireland, under the authority 
of Dr. Bray, archbishop of Cushel, and Dr. Troy, 
archbishop of Dublin. In this work it is stated 
— and to doubt the fact in Ireland, would be 
heresy — that in the month of May, 1796, at 
Toricedi, tears were seen to flov/ from the eyes of 
a icooden image of the Virgin Mary. Impious as 
such doctrines are, they are nov7 believed by 
Roman Catholics. 

I was myself personally acquainted with arch- 
bishop Troy, and I remember, when young, that 
he and the priests by whom I was instructed, took 
much more pains in impressing upon my mind the 
truth of such miracles, as that of the wooden Vir- 
gin Mary, than they did the truths of the Gospel ; 
and, in fact, every Catholic is taught to rest his sal- 
vation^ almost entirely, upon the intercession of the 
virgin. Ninety-nine in a hundred of Irish Catho- 
lics rest all their hopes of salvation on the Virgin 
Mary. They adore her, they worship her, and 
what is worse. Popish bishops and priests teach 
them to do so. They even compel them to adore 
the virgin, though the miserable beings^ have the 
hardihood to deny it before Americans. But wil* 
they dare do it before me ? When a poor, ignorant 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 



167 



Catholic goes to confession, the usual penance im- 
posed by the priest, for minor offences, is the repe- 
tition of the following address to the Virgin Mary, 
two or three times a day, for a week or more, ac- 
cording to the heinousness of the sin committed : — 



'' Holy Mary, 
Holy mother of God, 
Holy virgin of virgins. 
Mother of Christ, 
Mother of divine grace, 
Mother most pure, 
Mother most chaste. 
Mother undefiled, 
Mother untouched, 
Mother most amiable. 
Mother most admirable. 
Mother of our Creator, 
Mother of our Redeemer, 
Virgin most prudent, 
Virgin most venerable, 
Virgin most renowned. 
Virgin most powerful. 
Virgin most merciful. 
Virgin most faithful, 
Mirror of justice. 
Seat of wisdom, 
Cause of our joy, 



Spiritual vessel, 
Vessel of honor, [tion, 
Vessel of singular devo- 
Mystical rose. 
Tower of David, 
Tower of ivory, 
House of gold. 
Ark of the covenant, 
Gate of heaven. 
Morning star. 
Health of the weak, 
Ilefuge of sinners, 
Comfort of the afflicted, 
Help of Christians, 
Glueen of angels, 
Glueen of patriarchs, 
dueen of prophets, 
Glueen of apostles, 
Q,ueen of martyrs, 
Q,ueen of confessors, 
Q,ueen of virgins, 
dueen of all saints^" 



The above tissue of blasphemy is dail)'-, nay, 
several times in a day, repeated by Catholic priests 
and their penitents ; and I am much mistaken, if 
there is upon the face of the globe, whether in 
Pagan, Mahometan, or Heathen countries or creeds, 
to be found any thing equally blasphemous, or 
more disgusting to the mind of any individual 
who believes in the pardon of sin through the 



168 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

atonement of Christ ; and I hesitate not to say, 
that the Christian, who countenances such a doc- 
trine, or contributes, in any way, to its propaga- 
tion, denies his Saviour, and shows himself 
unworthy of the name he bears. 

To the professed infidel I have nothing to say. 
To him, who mocks and scoffs at the Triune God, 
I will attach no blame ; with him I have nothing in 
common, further than brotherhood of the same 
species ; but I must appeal to the Christian, and 
seriously ask him, Why do you encourage such 
blasphemy as this address to the Virgin Mary? 
Why do you encourage its propagation amongst 
your brethren ? Why do you hold communion 
with those who utter it ? Would the primitive 
Christians, if they now lived, hold any communion 
with idolaters ? Would they contribute their 
money to build temples for Isis and Dag07i ? 
Would they basely bend the knee to the golden 
calf of old ? No. Sooner — much sooner — would 
they lay their heads upon the block. They would 
look upon it as a denial of their God, and a recan- 
tation of their faith in him. Would your Puritan 
forefathers give the right hand of fellowship to the 
worshippers of a wooden image ? Would they 
give their money to a priest, to build churches, and 
teach his followers that they could hew out for 
them images of wood, posse-ssing power to work 
miracles, or in other words, to change the laws of 
nature, which the Eternal Law-Maker alone can 
change or suspend ? 

Custom, the point of the bayonet, or even that 
cruel tyrant, early education, may enforce such 
idolatry on the Old Vv^orld ; but the free-born Amer- 
ican, unbiassed by education — unawed by tyrants 
— has no apology. His submission to such doc- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 169 

irines is an unqualified surrender of his reason, his 
religion, and the liberties of his country. 

When the star of our independence first arose, 
it was hailed by the Christian philosophers of the 
old world, as a foreshadowing of the downfall of 
tyranny, superstition, and idolatry, They looked 
upon it as fatal to the bastard Paganism, taught in 
the Popish church ; but what must be their aston- 
ishment, if permitted at the present day to look 
down upon oar country, and see our people prac- 
tising that same Paganism, nicknamed Christianity, 
and asking from our government protection — a priv- 
ilege which the framers of our constitution never 
intended should be extended to tyrants or idolaters ! 

Here I would stop, and never more put pen to 
paper, for or against Popery, did I not see many of 
my fellow-citizens, possessing the finest minds and 
precious souls, falling victims to the sophistry, 
ingenuity, and quibbling casuistry of Popish priests 
and bishops. 

It is not long since I saw a letter from the Ro- 
man Catholic bishop Penwick, of the diocese of 
Massachusetts, in which he informs the authori- 
ties of Rome that he is making converts from some 
of the first families in his diocese. This, I pre- 
sume, is correct, and these are the very individ- 
uals most easily imposed upon. They know noth- 
ing of Popery. They are not aware that Papists 
ha\e two sides to the picture, which they exhibit 
of their church. One is fair, brilliant, dazzling, 
and seductive. Nothing is seen in their external 
forms of worship but showy vestments, dazzling 
lights, and the appearance of great devotion. 
Nothing is heard but the softest and most melting 
strains of music. No wonder these should capti- 
vate minds which are strangers to guilt ; nor is it 



170 

strange that they should bring into their church 
those who are most guihy, in the full assurance 
that their guilt shall be forgiven, and their crimes 
effaced from the records of heaven, by only con- 
fessing them to one of their priests. 

Will the heads of those respectable families, to 
whom Bishop Fenwick alludes, and from whom he 
is making so' many converts, permit me to ask 
them, whether they have ever reflected upon what 
they were doing, in permitting Romish priests to 
come among them ? I have myself been ^ Cath- 
olic priest, as I have more than once stated ; I am 
svithout any prejudice whatever. If I know myself, 
I would do an injustice to no man ; but I hesitate 
not to tell those heads of families, whether they 
are the parents or guardians of those converts to 
the Romish church, of whom mention is made, 
that if they have not used all their authority with 
which the laws of nature and of the land invests 
them, to prevent these co7iversio7is, they are highly 
culpable. If they are parents, they Iiave become 
the moral assassins of their own children, and pei- 
haps their own wives. Do any of those fathers 
know the questions which a Romish priest puts to 
those children, at confession ? Do husbands know 
the questions which piiests put to their wives, at 
confession ? Though a married man, I would blush 
to mention the least of them. 

Though not so fastidious as others, I cannot even 
think of them, much less name them, without a 
downcast eye and crimsoned cheek, and particularly 
those which are put to young and unmarried ladies. 

Fathers, mothers, guardians, and husbands of 
these converts^ fancy to yourselves the most indeli- 
cate, immodest, and libidinous questions which the 
most immoral and profligate mmd can conceive — 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. i< a 

fancy those ideas put into plain English, and that 
by way of question and answer — and you will 
then have a faint conception of the conversation 
which takes place between a pampered Romish 
priest and your hitherto pure-minded daughters. 
If, after two or three of these examinations, in that 
sacred tribunal, they still continue virtuous, they 
are rare exceptions. After an experience of some 
years in that church, sooner — far sooner — would 
I see my daughters consigned to the grave, than 
see them go to confession to a Romish priest or 
bishop. One is not a whit better than the other. 
They mutually confess to each other. 

It was not my intention, when I commenced this 
work, to enter into any thing like a discussion of 
the doctrines maintaitied by the Romish church. 
My sole object was to call the attention of Ameri- 
can Republicans to the dangers which were to be 
apprehended, and would inevitably follow, from 
the encouragement which they are giving to Popery 
amongst them. I have, however, deviated a little 
from my first intention, in more than one in- 
stance ; but I trust, not without some advantage 
to many of my readers. I am aware that I have 
exposed myself to the charge of carelessness and 
mdiiference to public opinion, in not paying more 
attention to the construction and order of my sen- 
tences. Did I write for fame, or the applause of 
this world, I would have been more careful; but, 
as my object is only to state facts, in language so 
plain that none can misunderstand it, I have no 
doubt the reader will pardon any defects which 
he may find in the language, or want of consecu- 
tiveness in the statements, which these pages 
contain. 

I will now ask the attention of the reader, for a 



172 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

few moments, to the Popish doctrine of Indulgen^ 
ces ; and I do so because priests and bishops deny 
that such things as indulgences are now either 
taught or granted to Catholics. They say from 
their pulpits and altars that indulgences are neither 
bought nor sold by Catholics, and never were. 

It is an axiom in our courts of law — and should 
be one in every well-regulated court of conscience 
— that falsus in unOj falsus in omnibus. The 
meaning of this axiom is, that he who tells a false- 
hood in one case will do so in every other. If this 
be true — and it is as true as that two and two make 
four — I pronounce all Roman Catholic priests, 
bishops, Popes, monks, friars, and nuns, to be the 
most deliberate and wilful set of liars that ever in- 
fested this or any other country, or disgraced the 
name of religion. I assert, and defy contradic- 
tion, that there is not a Roman Catholic church, 
chapel, or house of worshipun any Catholic coun- 
try, where indulgences are not sold. I will even 
go further, and say, that there is not a Roman Cath- 
olic priest in the IJnited States, who has denied the 
fact, that does not sell indulgences himself; and 
yet these priests, and these bishops — these men of 
sin, falsehood, impiety, impurity, and immorality — 
talk of morals^ and preach morals^ while in their 
sleeves, and in their practices, they laugh at such 
ideas as moral obligations. Here I would appeal 
even to Irish Catholics who are in this country. I 
would ask all, or any of them, if ever they have 
heard mass in any Catholic chapel in Dublin, or any 
other city in Ireland, without hearing published 
from the altar, a notice in the following words, or 
words of similar import. 

" Take notice, that there will he an indulgence 
on day J in church. Confessions will 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 173 

be heard on day, to prepare those who loish to 

fartake of. the indulgence^ I have published 
hundreds of such notices myself; and any Ameri- 
can, who may visit Ireland, or any Catholic 
country, and has the curiosity to enter any of 
the Romish chapels, can hear these notices read ; 
but when he returns to the United States, he 
will hear the Roman priests say that " there are 
no indulgences sold by the Romish Church." 
Beware, Americans ! How long will you be the 
dupes of Popish priests ? 

Will the reader permit me to take him back a 
few years, and show him in what light indulgences 
were viewed in the 16th century, under the imme- 
diate eye of the Pope and full sanction of the infal- 
lible church! 

The name Tetzel, is familiar to every reader. He 
was an authorized agent for the sale of indulgences. 
I will give you one of his speeches, as recorded on 
the authority of Roman Catholic writers, and re- 
cently published in this country in D'Aubigne's 
History of the Reformation. 

Indulgences — says this reverend delegate of the 
Pope — are the most precious and sublime of God's 

ffifts. 

Draw near, and I loill give you letters duly 
sealed, by tvhich even the sins you shall hereafter 
desire to commit shall be all forgiven you. 

I luould not exchange my privileges for those of 
St. Peter in heaven ; for I have saved more souls 
by my indulgences, than he by his sermo7is. 

There is no sin so great, that the indulgence can- 
not remit it, and even if any one should — lohich is 
impossible — ravish the holy .Mother of God, lei 
him pay, let him only pay largely, and it shall 
he forgiven him. The very moment the money 



174 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

goes into the Pope's box, that moment even the con- 
demned soul of the sinner flies to heaven. 

Examine the history of Paganism, and you will 
not find in its darkest pages any thing more infa- 
mously blasphemous than the above extract, taken 
from a speech delivered by one of the Pope's auc- 
tioneers for the sale of indulgences. But even this 
would be almost pardonable, if priests did not 
try to persuade Americans that those sales have long 
since ceased. 

It is not more than twelve months since I was in 
the city of Principe, Cuba ; and I beg permission 
to relate to my readers what I have there personally 
witnessed ; or, as we would express it in our most 
homely language, seen with my own eyes. 

At an early hour in the morning, I was aroused 
from my slumbers by a simultaneous ringing of all 
the bells in the city. On looking cut, I witnessed 
the marching of troops, firing of cannons, field-of- 
ficers iu their full uniforms, all the city authorities 
wearing their oflicial robes, with innumerable priests 
and friars bustling about from one end of the city 
to the other. My first impression was, that a de- 
structive fire must have broken out somewhere, or 
that some frightful insurrection had taken place : 
but, on inquiry, what think you, reader, caused 
this simultaneous movement of the whole popula- 
tion of Principe, amounting in all to about sixty 
thousand ? " Tell it not in Gath ; publish it not in 
the streets of Askelon." A huge bull of indulgences 
had arrived from the Pope of Rome, and they 
turned out — troops and all — to pay it due hom- 
age^ and hear it read in the cathedral of Principe. 

A day was appointed for the sale of the indul 
gences contained in the aforesaid bull ! Accompa- 
nied by a Scotch gentleman, with whom I had the 
pleasure of forming an acquaintance, we went, with 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS 175 

others, to the house of the spiritual auctioneer, and 
I there purchased of the priest, for two dollars and 
fifty cents, an indulgence for any sin I might com- 
mit, except four, which I will nof mention. These, 
I was told, could only be forgiven by the Pope, and 
would cost me a considerable sum of money. 

Many of our citizens are in the habit of visiting 
Havana, and can purchase those indulgences at 
any sum from twelve and a half cents to five hun- 
dred dollars. Will you still listen to Popish priests, 
who tell you that indulgences are neither sold nor 
bought now in the Komish church ? 

From Cuba I immediately proceeded in the Uni- 
ted States' ship Yandalia, to Vera Cruz, and from 
thence to the city of Mexico. I felt desirous of as- 
certaining the state of Popery in that exclusively 
Popish country, and availed myself of every oppor- 
tunity to do so. Accordingly, soon after my arrival 
in Mexico, I strolled into the cathedral, and saw in 
the centre aisle a large table, about forty feet long 
and four wide, covered with papers, resembling, at 
a distance, some of our bank checks. Curiosity in- 
duced me to examine them, and, instead of bank 
checks, I found checks on Heaven ; or, in other 
words, indulgences for sins of all descriptions. 

I resolved upon purchasing ; but, knowing 
full well that Americans, though the most intel- 
ligent people in the world, hut long the dupes of 
Roman Catholics, would scarcely believe me if I 
told them that I bought an indulgence in Mexico. I 
went back and requested of our consul there, Mr. 
Black, to come with me to the cathedral and witness 
the purchase of, and payment by me for an i?idul- 
gence. Will Catholic priests tell you there is no 
truth in this ? If they do, be not hasty in making 
up your minds on the question. There are two or 
8* 



176 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

three lines of packets running from New York to 
Vera Cruz, and you can easily ascertain, from Mr. 
Black, whether I am telling truth, or whether Pa- 
pists are humbugging you, as they have been for 
the last half century. 

But why go abroad for evidence to fix upon Ro- 
mish priests the indellible stigma of falsehood on the 
subject of indulgences ? I have sold them myself, 
in Philadelphia and in Europe ! The first year 1 
officiated in Philadelphia as a Roman Catholic priest, 
I sold nearly three thousand of these indulgences, 
as the agent of holy mother, the infallible church ; 
and though several years have elapsed since, many 
of those who bought them are still living in that 
city. 

Some explanation is necessary here, as I cannot 
presume that Americans are yet acquainted with a 
doctrine called Pious Frauds, held and acted upon 
by the infallible church. 

The Pope of Rome and the Propaganda, taking 
into consideration the savage ignorance of Ameri- 
cans, deemed it prudent to substitute some other 
natne for the usual name indulgeiices, and some- 
thing else for the usual document specifying the na- 
ture of the indulgence which was given to pious 
sinners in " the New World: " they thought it joos- 
sible that Yankees might have the curiosity to read 
the loritten indulgences. This, said they in their 
wisdom, must be prevented ; and here is a case 
where our doctrine of pious frauds comes beauti- 
fully into play. After singing ihe ^^Veni Creator 
spiritus " — as usual in such cases — they resolved 
that indulgences should be in future called Scapu- 
las, and thus piously enable all Roman Catholic 
priests and bishops to swear on the Holy Evange- 
lists that no indulgences were ever sold in the 



A.S IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 177 

United States. This is what holy ntoiher calls 
pieiis fraud. 

All the indulgences which I sold in Philadelphia 
were called scapulas. They are made of small 
pieces of cloth, with the letters I. H. S. written 
on the outside, and are worn on the breast. I 
will give you an idea of the revenue arising from 
the sale of those scapulas in the United States, by 
stating to you the price at which I sold them. 

The scapula costs the purchaser one dollar. The 
priest who sells it tells him that to make it thor- 
oughly efficacious, it is necessary that he should 
cause some masses to be said, and the poor dupe 
gives one, five, ten, or twenty dollars, according to 
his or her means, for those masses. I may safely 
say, that, on an average, every scapula or indul- 
gence sold in the United States costs at least five 
dollars. What think you now of the word, the 
honor, or the oath of a Popish priest ? Are you 
not ashamed to be so long their dupes ? Do you 
not blush at the reflection, that you have given so 
much of your money, your sympathy, and hospital- 
ity, to such arrant knaves ? Sad is the reflection 
to me, and dark are the thoughts, that I should have 
ever belonged to a church, which imbodies in its 
doctrines all that is degrading to humanity, and re- 
duces man, from being ''little lower than the an- 
gels," to a thing, such as a Papist priest, in full com- 
munion with the Pope, having nothing in common 
with his fellow-beings but the form of humanity. 

You, Americans, who have thoughtlessly united 
yourselves with these priests in their church, come 
out, 1 beseech you, from among them. Entail not 
upon your children the curse of Popery. Flee 
from them as Lot did from Sodom. To err is the 
'ot of man. To fall and to trip in his passage 



178 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

through life, is the lot of even the best of men. 
You have erred in joining the Romish church, 
but you will doubly err by continuing in member- 
ship with her. The country which gave you 
birth is a glorious one ; it has all the advantages of 
nature ; it is fertilized by salubrious seas, and its 
own beautiful lakes. There is nothing you want 
which the God of nature has not given, and blessed 
for your use. There is but one dark speck upon the 
horizon of your national prosperity and greatness, 
but that is a deep one. It is a sad one, and may 
be a bloody one. Popery hovers over it, iike some 
ill-omened bird, waiting only a favorable opportunity 
to pounce upon its prey ; or some foul exhalation, 
which, being checked in its soaring, turns to a fog, 
causing darkness and scattering disease, wherever 
It falls. Alas, fellow-citizens, it has already fallen 
amongst us, and is growing with fearful rapidity ; 
hke the more noxious weed, it loves a rich soil ; it 
cannot fail to flourish in ours. 

Take heed, Americans, lest you allow this weed 
to come to maturity. Eradicate it in time ; let it 
not ripen amongst you ; allow not its capsule to fill, 
blossom, and ripen ; if you do, mark what I tell 
you : it will burst, scattering its noxious, sickening, 
and poisonous odors amid the pure breezes of that 
religious and political freedom, which have so long, 
so gracefully and sweetly played over this beloved 
''land of the free and home of the brave." 

If you will look around you, and visit our courts 
of law ; if you extend your visits to your prisons, 
your houses of industry and reformation ; if you 
go farther, and examine your penitentiaries, what 
will you find? Permit me to show you what you 
will behold in one single city, the city of New 
York. This, of itself, were there no other cause 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 179 

of alarm, should be sufficient to arouse your patriot- 
ism, for you must not forget that nearly all the for- 
eigners, emmierated in the document which I here 
subjoin, are Roman Catholics, or reduced to their 
present condition while living in Catholic countries. 
But let the document speak for itself. It is official, 
and may be relied on. It came from a committee 
of the Board of Aldermen of the city of New York 
upon the subject of alien passengers. Taking this 
as your data, vou may be able to form some idea 
of what yon suffer in money, in virtue, and in 
vour morals, from the introduction of foreign Pa- 
pists among you. 

" The Foreign Poor in our Alms-Houses, 
AND THE Foreign Criminals in our Penitentia- 
ries. — We hasten to lay before our readers a high- 
ly interesting document, from a committee in the 
Board of Aldermen, upon the subject of bonding 
alien passengers in New York. From the docu- 
ment, it appears that the bonds of nine firms in this 
city exhibit the enormous liabilities of $16,000,000 ; 
that of the 602 children supported by the city, at 
the Farm Schools, 457 are the children (many, if 
not the most of them, illegitimate) of foreign pa- 
rents ; that of the latest-born infants at nurse, at 
the city's expense, 32 are foreign, and only two 
American, and ' that of the whole number of chil- 
dren, 626 have foreign parentagfe, and 195 Amer- 
can ; exhibiting the average of more than three for- 
eigners to one native, and an alarming increase of 
the ratio of foreigners in the more recent births.' 

" The whole number of inmates in our peniten- 
tiary is 1419, showing an increase of 400 since July 
last ; of these 333 are Americans, and 1198 foreign- 
ers. The number of prisoners and paupers, to sup- 
port whom we all pay taxes, is 4344, showing an 
increase, since July last, of nearly 1000. 



180 SYNOPSIS OF POPERr, 

''In view of these alarming facts, and remember- 
ing that over 60,000 immigrants were commuted 
and bonded here the last year, the committee make 
some forcible appeals to the comitry, which cannot 
be without their effect. The enormous taxation to 
which we are subject, in order to support foreign 
paupers and criminals, is a great and growing evil, 
which presses heavily upon industry, as well as 
upon the character, morals, and politics of the 
country." 

This is a frightful picture of things, especially in a 
country abounding and almost overflowing with the 
means of sustaining and abundantly supplying fifty 
times the population it contains. 

Examine well the results of Popery, in a reli- 
gious, moral, and political point of view, especially 
during the last thirty years, and you will find that 
there is no vice, no crime, no folly or absurdity, 
which time has brought into the old world, as Mil- 
ton expresses it, '' in its huge drag-net," that Pa- 
pists are not introducing among you ; and there is 
no consequence which followed it there which we 
shall not see here, unless you are to a man " up and 
doing," luitil this noxious weed is rooted from 
amongst you. I wish these unfortunate Papists no 
evil ; far be such a sentiment from my mind. 1 
would be their best friend; but who can befriend 
them, while they permit themselves to be con- 
trolled and deluded by their priests. 

A Roman Catholic priest is, pro tanto, the worst 
enemy of man. He degrades his mind by render- 
ing him the slave of his church- He debauches 
his morals, and those of his wife and children, by 
withholding from them the word of God. He 
weakens his understanding, by filling his mind 
•vith absurd traditions. He evokes, and indirectly 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 181 

invites, the indulgence of his worst passions, by 
, promising him the pardon of his sins. He checks 
the noblest aspirations and finest charities of his 
soul, by instilling into it the rankest hatred and 
animosity towards his fellow-being, whom God has 
commanded him to love as he loves himself, but 
whom the priest tells him to curse, hate, and ex- 
terminate. In a word, he almost degrades him to a 
level with the beast, by teaching him to lower that 
holy flag, on which should be written, Glory be to 
God on high, — and raising above it the blood- 
stained flag of Popery. 

This American Protestants know full well. They 
feel it. It is known and felt in every Protestant 
land; but it seems as "if some strange spirit was 
passing over people's dreams." Though found to 
be unsound, and even bad policy ; though destruc- 
tive to agricultural, commercial, and every other in- 
terest, yet we see no efl'orts made to arrest its ad- 
vance amongst us. Neither are there any means 
taken, as far as the writer knows, in other Protestant 
countries, to suppress this religious, political, and 
commercial nuisance ; on the contrary, we find that 
even in Great Britain further stimulants are being 
applied to Popish insolence. 

Sir Robert Peel, the premier of England, has, or 
is about introducing a bill into parliament, with a 
view of making further appropriations for the Ro- 
mish college of Maynooth, in Ireland; and, much 
to my surprise, as well I believe as to that of every 
man who correctly understands the spirit of Popery, 
he has some supporters. Even some of the British 
reviewers give him high praise. 

" The credit to which Sir Robert Peel is enti- 
tled," says one of the British Quarterlies, " is greatly 
increased by reason of the prejudices of some of his 
supporters; but (continues the same Quarterly) his 



182 

resolution is taken and his declaration made. 
This should read, in my humble apprehension 
his resolution is taken, and his infatuation complete 

I have been a student in that college ; I know 
what 'is taught and done in that institution. I am 
well acquainted with all the minutiae of its business 
and theological transactions ; and I could tell Sir 
Robert Peel that he either knows not what he is 
doing, or is a traitor to his government ! Does Sir 
Robert know that in that college are concocted 
all the plans and all the measures which O'Connell 
is proposing, and has been pursuing during the last 
thirty years, for emancipation, and now for the repeal 
of the Union ? Does he know that Maynooth is the 
focus from which radiate all the treasons, assassina- 
tions, and murders of Protestants, in Ireland ? Is he 
aware that this very Maynooth is the great Popish 
eccaleobion, in which most of those priests who 
infest Ireland, and are now infesting the United 
States, are hatched? Does he know that Daniel 
O'Connell and that college are the mutual tools of 
each other ? O'Connell, riding on the backs of 
the priests into power and into wealth, and they 
alternately mounted upon Dan, advancing the ^Zori/ 
of the infallible church ! 

It is not probably known to Mr. Peel that thirty 
years or more have elapsed since it was secretly 
resolved in Maynooth that none hut a Catholic 
should luear the British crown, and that he should 
receive it as a fief from the Pope of Rome. Every 
move and advance which O'Connell makes in re- 
peal is a step gained towards this object, and upon 
this his ambitious eye rests with intense avarice. 
For this, Maynooth and its priests thirst with insa- 
tiable desire. It is not many years since O'Connell 
and Maynooth asked for emancipation, and they 
obtained it. Protestants of England were duped 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 183 

into the belief that Papists would now be satisfied, 
and unite in supporting the government ; but, 
scarcely was this granted, when the great agitator 
with the advice and consent of Maynooth, asked 
foi — what, think you, reader ? Nothing less than a 
dismemberment of the British government — noth- 
mg less than a repeal of the Union ; or, in other 
words, to permit one of the most turbulent dema- 
gogues that ever lived, Daniel O'Connell, to become 
king of Ireland, and to receive his crown from the 
Pope of Rome. 

This is now the avowed object of re'peal ; but there 
IS another object, not yet seen nor dreamed of by those 
who are not Roman Catholics ; and I beg the reader 
to keep it in his recollection. It is this. O'Connell, 
by agitating Ireland, and scattering firebrands 
throughout England, believes that he and the Cath- 
olics will ultimately succeed in dethroning the 
sovereign of England, and placing the crown on 
some Popish head. Were the college of Maynooth 
further endowed through the efforts or folly of Sir 
Robert Peel, does he believe, or can any man, ac- 
quainted with the genius of Popery believe, that this 
would satisfy O'Connell or the Pope's agents in Ire- 
land ? The very reverse would be the case. It would 
only imbolden them still further. It would only 
increase their insolence ; it would only add a new 
impetus to their treasonable demands, and give an in- 
creased momentum to their disorganizing meetings. 

Should the British Government grant all O'Con- 
nell asks, or should parliament pass a bill for the re- 
peal of the Union, is it to be supposed that O'Con- 
nell and the Irish bishops — the sworn allies of 
the king of Rome — would be satisfied ? Not 
they. The truth is — and I wish I could im- 
press it upon the minds of every Protestant in Eng- 



184 ST!TbPSIS O? POPERY. 

land as well as in this country — nothing short of 
the total overthroiD of the government of Great 
Britain and the Protestant religion will content the 
Popish church, whose cats-paw Daniel O'Connell 
is. Should Providence, in his inscrutable designs, 
grant them this, our experiment in the science of 
self-government is at an end. We shall become an 
easy prey to any alliance which should be formed 
against our republican institutions. The jackals of 
Popery are amongst us : they have discovered us ; 
and Popish priests, the natural enemies of free in- 
stitutions and of the Protestant religion, will soon 
destroy our republic and our religion. 

It is useless to deny the fact. It cannot be de- 
nied. It were folly to conceal it. The extirpation 
of heresy^ or, in other words, of the Protestant re- 
ligion, is the grand object which O'Connell and the 
Pope have now in view ; and, to effect this, they 
have judiciously divided and advantageously posted 
all their forces. These forces are well ofiicered by 
Jesuits and priests, men without honor, principle, or 
religion ; whose time is spent in advancing Popery 
and the grossest indulgence of their own pas- 
sions. The Pope and O'Connell have, in this coun- 
try, an army of nearly two millions of reckless des- 
peradoes, who have given already strong evidences 
of their thirst for American Protestant blood. It is 
necessary to watch them well. Americans must 
recollect that these men receive their orders from 
Rome, through O'Connell, who, I sincerely be- 
lieve, is this moment the worst man living, though 
the Pope calls him the greatest layman living. He 
is upon earth what the pirate is upon the seas, in- 
imicus humani generis — the enemy of mankind. 
During the last thirty years he has kept the poor of 
Ireland in a state of poverty and excitement bor- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 185 

dering upon madness. He has filched from them 
the last farthing they possessed. He has withdrawn 
them by thousands from their ordinary pursuits of 
industry : he has sown amongst them mutual hatred 
and a general discontent with their situations in life. 
But that is not all. He has pursued the poor people 
even to this country. He robs them here of their lit- 
tle earnings. They make remittances to him of 
hundreds and thousands of dollars ; and this, while 
many of them, to my own knowledge, and not a 
hundred yards from where I write, are shivering in 
the cold blasts of winter, — all for their good^ while 
O'Connell himself is feasting in Ireland, and enjoy- 
ing the sports of the chase, on about three hundred 
thousand dollars a year. 

This is not all. The great agitator, this na- 
tional beggar, Daniel O'Connell, has recently dis- 
covered that there were some little glimmerings of 
Protestantism in France ; that Louis Phillippe was 
neither a Don Miguel, a Ferdinand, nor a very 
strong advocate of Popery, opens upon him a bat- 
tery of abuse. This foul-mouthed brawler was 
not content witli sowing discord among the poor 
Irish, and scattering treason among the people of 
Great Britain, he tries what he can do with the 
inflammable people of France, who are now in the 
enjoyment of more domestic happiness and national 
glory than they have had for the last century. 
But even this is not enough ; the genius of the 
great national beggar, fertile in schemes, treasons, 
rebellions, scurrillity, and Popery, must cross the 
Atlantic and denounce Americans, who, since the 
declaration of their independence, have been the 
best and warmest friends of his poor countrymen ; 
they have received them, employed them, giving 
them bread and clothing in abundance. They 



186 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

permitted them to bring with them their priests 
and their reUgion ; they shielded and protected 
them in their lives and liberties. This country 
was to the Irish, a land flowing with milk and 
honey, and they might have enjoyed it, and been 
happy, had it not been for their accursed religion 
and its priests. 

The great Dan saw and felt this. A stop must 
be put to it. The holy church saw that this state 
of things, would not answer her purposes. The 
harmony, which existed for so long a time between 
the hospitable and generous Americans and the for- 
lorn Irish, must be broken, lest Papists should be- 
come Protestants and forget their allegiance to the 
Pope ; and accordingly, the great agitator, this 
enemy to order, to God, and to peace, commenced 
denouncing Americans, as usurers and infidels^ 
who had not even a national law of their own. 
He calls upon the Irish to come out from among 
them, and have nothing to do with them. 

Soon after this, the Pope sends over some bulls, 
making similar demands upon the Irish and all other 
Catholics, under pain of excommunication ; and 
what is the result ? The name of an Irishman is 
now a by-word, in the United States, especially 
if he is a Roman Catholic. It is associated with 
every thing that is low, vulgar, and bigoted. No 
longer do the Americans receive the Irish with 
open arms : no longer do they welcome them to 
their shores ; nor in fact is it safe for them longer 
to do so. And what occasioned this ? That dem- 
agogue, O'Connell, and the Pope of Rome. 

Does Mr. Peel reflect, when he is moving in 
parliament for an additional appropriation for the 
college of Maynooth, in Ireland, that he is only 
adding fuel to the political fire, which these men 
are trying to enkindle, and have actually enkindled 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 187 

ill a great part of Europe, and in the United States? 
Has the fact escaped his notice, that the Pope and 
the GREATEST LAYMAN Uvhig^ as his royal holiness 
calls O'Connell, have no misunderstanding with 
Spain, Portugal, or any other government, strictly 
Popish ? 

They have no feeling of compassion for the de- 
graded Italian, the ignorant and half-starved Span- 
iard or Portuguese, or the wretched Mexican slave. 
O, no ! It is only for a Papist under a Protestant 
government, that their compassion is moved. Their 
condition must be ameliorated, or in plain English, 
these governments must be overthrown and Popery 
must reign supreme. Let Mr. Peel reflect upon this 
single fact, and he and his supporters cannot fail 
to see, that, in giving further aid to the Popish col- 
lege of Maynooth, he is but " sowing dragons' 
teeth, from which armed men will spring up." He 
is only throwing an additional force into that Tro- 
jan horse, which his predecessors had introduced 
into unfortunate Ireland, and which Popes and 
priests have secretly stolen into these United States. 

I know O'Connell well. I have had, in my 
younger days, some personal acquaintance with him ; 
and I can tell Mr. Peel, that with the college of 
Maynooth to back him, he, — Mr. Peel and his 
party — are no match for him in craft and intrigue. 
All O'Connell's plans for the extirpation of Prot- 
estanism are devised in Rome. They are submit- 
ted to the Propaganda, and from thence sent to 
Maynooth to be there revised and corrected. As 
soon as this is done, a copy is forwarded to each of 
the metropolitan bishops of Ireland, who return it 
with such observations as they deem necessary, 
and all things being prepared, secu7idum ordinem, 
the usual Vent, Creator, is sung ; the project, what- 



188 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

ever it may be, is sanctioned ; every priest in Ireland 
is prepared to carry it into effect ; and all that now 
remains to be done is, to give the gieat beggar his 
secret orders. What can Peel, or his few supporters, 
do against such a party as this ? Nothing, unless 
the government changes its mode of proceeding 
against O'Connell. Maynooth, and the Irish bishops. 
But it is to be feared, that this will not be done 
while Peel is at the head of affairs. 

England, once indomitable, and always brave ; 
England, proud of her religion and of her laws, 
seems recently to forget her ancient glories. She 
is showing the white feather ; she is dallying with 
Popery, and singing lullabies to quiet and put 
asleep Daniel O'Connell and his Irish bishops, whose 
treason and political treachery can only be stopped, 
and should have been stopped long since, by con- 
signing the greatest layman that ever lived, and a 
few of his right reverend advisers, to transportation 
for life. 

Americans may think this wrong, but though I 
have not the least pretension to the faculty of pro- 
phesying, I think I can safely tell them, that, in 
less than twenty 3^ears, they will have to enact 
much severer laws against Roman Catholics than 
any which are now recorded against them on the 
statute book of Great Britain. It must be borne in 
mind, that Popery never bends, and therefore it 
should and must be broken. It was in this college 
of Maynooth, and from those bishops and priests, 
with whom Sir Robert Peel is dallying, I first 
learned that the king of England was an usurper. 
It was they, who first taught me that the Pope of 
Rome — virtute clavorutn, hy virtue of the keys — 
was the rightful sovereign of England, as well as 
of all the kingdoms of the earth. It was in the 



A? IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 189 

college of Maynooth, I was taught to keep no faith 
with heretics, and that it was my solemn duty to 
exterminate them ; it was there I first learned, that 
any oath of allegiance, which I may take to a Prot- 
estant government, was null and void, and need 
not be kept. 

It was at this same college of Maynooth, that 
nine tenths of the priests in this country received 
their education ; and is it not deplorable to re- 
flect, that such men as Sir Robert Peel, in Eng- 
land, and several equally distinguished in this coun- 
try, should be so entirely blindfolded and unmindful 
of the interest of their respective countries, as to 
give any countenance, aid, or support to Popery, or 
Popish institutions among them? I trust, however, 
and fondly hope, that this imprudent, impolitic, 
and ill-advised scheme of Sir Robert Peel's, will be 
resisted and thrown out of parliament, with such 
marks of disapprobation as becomes every honest 
Protestant and true Briton. Will those who 
sympathize with Popery in the United States, 
look back to the page of history ? and if they will 
not take instruction from me, let them take it from 
the past. Let them listen to the voice of the dead, 
and learn a lesson from them. Let them read the 
history of France. Who urged on all the opposi- 
tions that have been made, from time to time, to 
the government and constituted authorities of that 
country ? What were the causes, remote or im- 
mediate, of all the blood that has been shed in 
France for centuries back ? The Pope of Rome 
and his agents. 

It is truly to be lamented, that Napoleon had not 
lived longer ; he might, it is true, have caused some 
disturbance, and hastened the fall of some of the 
tottering thrones of Europe. Spain, Italy, Portugal, 



190 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

and even Austria and Prussia, might have ceased 
to have kings, by divine right; but a far better 
order of things could not fail soon to have arisen. 
The Pope would have been hurled from his throne ; 
Napoleon would have stripped from him the trap- 
pings of royalty ; he would have taught him to feel, 
and reduce to practice the heavenly declaration of his 
Divine Master, v/liich his holiness now repeats in sol- 
emn mockery, regnum meiLin non est de hoc mundo. 
He would have confined him to his legitimate duty, 
in place of spending his time in dictating political 
despatches to foreign powers, and sending bulls of 
excommunication which are now become laughing- 
stocks to all intelligent men ; he might be devoted 
to the advancement of true Christianity, and the 
world saved from those contentions and disturb- 
ances, occasioned by this man of sin and his 
agents. 

Why will not our statesmen reflect upon these 
things, lest in some future contest with the powers 
of Europe the scales of victory may be turned 
against them by this man of sin, whose agents in 
this country, as I have heretofore remarked, amount 
to nearly two millions. The defeat or subv^ersion 
of the government of Great Britain, by Popish 
power, is equivalent to a victory gained by it over 
the United States. I tell the Protestants of Eng- 
land and of the United States, that their respective 
governments are doomed to fall, if Popery gains 
the ascendency over either ; and all those who try to 
foment or urge any difficulties between them, are 
not the friends of either, but the enemies of both. 
It is only by the combined efforts of Protestants, 
all over the world, that Popery can be crushed, and 
peace, and religion, and fraternal love, restored to 
mankind. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 191 

I have produced some facts that admit of- no de- 
nial, and I put the question, confidently, to every 
honest and sensible Protestant in England or Amer- 
ica, who is unv/arped by prejudice or interest, 
whether the cause of liberty is not in danger, and 
likely to decline, if we any longer submit to or 
acquiesce in the doctrines of Popery ! And I ask 
every reflecting American in particular, whether 
the influence which Popery has now in this country, 
is not likely to create anarchy, or even despotism 
amongst us, though we may preserve the forms of 
a free constitution ! 

I have alluded to the struggles in England with 
Popery ; I have mentioned the name of that dema- 
gogue, O'Connell, because he is the agent of the 
Pope for both countries, and because I beheve it is 
the mutual interest of the two to unite, and stand 
shoulder to shoulder in opposition to Popish in- 
trigues, evolved in the proceedings of this selfish 
and dangerous man, O'Connell. The designs of 
O'Connell and the Irish bishops, and those of the 
Pope and his Jesuit agents in the United States, 
are proved upon testimony which admits of no de- 
nial, viz : their own admissions. O'Connell, the 
niouthpiece of Popery in Ireland, avows publicly 
that Protestant England shall not govern Irish Pa- 
pists, and the Pope's agents in the United States 
declare and swear, that Americans shall not rule 
them. How are the English and Americans to treat 
this common enemy ? Let them go into the ene- 
my's armory, divest themselves of their mav/kish 
sympathy, buckle on the very armor which their 
enemy wears, and adopt the mode of warfare used 
by them. Give the common enemy no quarters, 
assail them from every point, and the subjects of 
his holiness the Pope, either in Great Britain or the 
9 



192 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

United States, will not long remain insensible to 
the miseries, into which the great national rent beg- 
gar has plunged them. This, however, I find 
cannot be easily done in the United States. The 
difficulty with our people is this, they would find 
it much easier to assume the armor used by the 
common enemy, than to lay down that of sympa- 
thy and hospitality, which they have heretofore 
worn, and thus, although a moral and religious 
people, their zeal is but dim and sluggish, while 
that of their adversaries, the Pope and his agents, 
burijs higher and clearer every day. This must 
not be. God and freedom forbid it. 

The political contest, which has jusi ended, has 
tended greatly, at least for the moment, to im- 
bolden and encourage Popery. Each paarty courted 
the Papists, and they supported him from whom 
they expected most favors. They laid their meshes, 
nets, and traps for President Polk ; but I believe 
they have been '' caught in their own traps^ That 
gentleman is said to be a moral and religious man, 
and one of the last in the world to countenance idola- 
try, blasphemy, or treason amongst us. But now that 
the contest is over, and no further avowal of distinct 
party principles is necessary or profitable, it is to be 
hoped that the good and virtuous of both parties 
will unite in passing such laws, as will shield our 
country and our people from any further Popish in- 
terference with our government or our institutions. 
He, who shall bring about this desirable result, 
and those who aid him, will merit the gratitude of 
their country. 

In the present position of parties, much is ex- 
pected from the great •' American Republican " asso- 
ciation, which has recently been formed throughout 
the United States. Every eye is fixed upon its 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 193 

movements, and the hopes of all Protestants hang 
upon its success. Do not disappoint us, American 
Republicans. You alone can save the Protestant 
foreigner from the persecutions of Popery, and we 
call upon you, bv the memory of your sires, to shield 
us from it. 

You have a great part to act ; you are young ; but 
the purity of your principles, and the justice of your 
cause, abundantly supply what is wanting in age. 
You are the mediators between two great politi- 
cal parties, whose extremes cannot meet, or if they 
did, would only tend to render their respective 
centres still more corrupt, by their internal powers 
of contamination. Neither of those parties will 
ever consent to be governed by the other ; nor has 
either of them the moral courage to come forth boldly 
and say to Popery^ Stand off, thou unclean thing. 
Thou hast polluted all Europe for ages past ; stand 
aloof from us ; wash thy polluted hands and blood- 
stained garments ; until then, thou art unfit to en- 
ter the temple of our liberties. Thou art, in thy 
very nature, impure, and hast already diffused 
amongst us too much of thy deadly poison before we 
took the alarm. Like an infected atmosphere, thou 
hast silently entered the abodes of moral health ; 
thou hast penetrated the strong holds of our free- 
dom, without giving us any warning ! Avaunt, 
thou SCARLET LADY OF BABYLON ! rcccdc to the Pon- 
tine marshes, whence thou camest. and no longer 
infect the pure air of freedom ! The foul stains of 
thy corruption shall no longer be permitted to spot 
the pure and unsullied insignia of independence ! 

I am aware that the sympathizers with Popery 
will say that such language as the above is rather 
harsh. They will tell us it is cruel. They will 
assert, in their usual mawkish style, that it was 



194 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. 

never the intention of the framers of our constitu- 
tion to treat those who come amongst us with un- 
kindness. > They themselves invited the oppressed 
of every land, creed, and people, to our shores. 
They extended the hand of friendship to all, with- 
out distinction of party, sect, or religion. So they 
did, and so do their descendants. Any and every 
man is welcome to this country. "Whether he 
comes from the banks of the Euphrates, shores of 
the Ganges, or bogs of Ireland, he is sure to re- 
ceive from Americans a warm and hospitable recep- 
tion. His person, his liberty, and his property, are 
protected; l3ut there is a condition under which 
this reception is given, and without which it never 
should be granted. The recipient of all these fa- 
vors is required to yield obedience to the mild and 
equitable laws of the United States ; forswearing 
at the same time, all allegiance to any other king, 
potentate, or power whatever. This condition, so 
just, so reasonable, and so politic, is generally 
complied with by all foreigners, who land in these 
United States, with the exception of Roman Cath- 
olics. All others come amongst us, and either re- 
fuse at once to become citizens, or honestly incor- 
porate themselves with us. The Papist alone re- 
fuses incorporation with Americans. He alone 
comes amongst us the avowed enemy of our insti- 
tutions, and the sworn subject of a foreign king, 
the Pope of Rome. Among all the foreigners who 
land upon the shores of this country, none but Pa- 
pists avow any hostility to its institutions. They 
alone would dare say, '' Americans sha^n^t rule us.^^ 
On them alone have Americans just cause to look 
as traitors to their government, and foes to their 
religion ; and they alone should be singled out as 
just objects of fear and jealousy. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 195 

I have, in the preceding pages, traced the origin of 
ihi Papal temporal power torts proper source ; and 
endeavored to follow the coarse of its turbid and 
muddy stream, through m.any of its sinuosities and 
canonical — if I may use such a term — gyrations, 
down to the middle of the 16th century. 1 freely 
admit that I have made many " short ciits,'^ and 
have been obliged to pass unnoticed several of its 
acute angles. Were I to proceed ^^ pari passu '^ 
with its course, taking all its bearings and accom- 
panying them with the necessary observations, it 
would require a volume at least ten times as large 
as that which I now respectfully present to the 
public. I shall, however, if Providence leaves me 
health, continue the subject of Popery as it was 
AND AS IT IS. I will dissect the Body Papal, so 
that every American, who honors me with the pe- 
rusal of my observations, will see its inmost struc- 
ture. I have studied its anatomy ; I understand 
all its minutiag ; and if any can view the skeleton 
without horror and shame for having so long con- 
tributed to feast and fatten the monster, it shall not 
be my fault. The performance of this operation 
will be, in every point of view, extremely unpleas- 
ant. Whichever way I look, the prospect must be 
disagreeable. Behind, I can only see an object 
in which I once felt an interest, and with which I 
was unfortunately connected : and before, nothing 
is to be seen but further persecutions and calum- 
nies. But, ^ost what it may, it shall not be said 
of me by friend or foe, that I have shrunk from 
the performance of a duty which I owe to the 
cause of morality, and to my adopted country. 

I have merely touched upon the persecuting and 
treacherous spirit of the Popish church. The profli- 
gacy of its priests are scarcely noticed by me as 
yet. Its idolatries and blasphemies axe barely allu- 



196 SYNOPSIS OF POPERYj 

ded to. Indulgences, miracles, and the iniquities 
committed in nunneries, are scarcely glanced at. 
The twilight view, which I have given of these 
subjects, is only intended for a better observation 
of them, under the full light of some mid-day sun. 

Before I conclude this volmne, permit me to 
give you a brief view of Popery as it is at this 
very day on which I write. I have a double 
object in doing this. First, what I am about 
stating has perhaps escaped the notice of many 
of my fellow-citizens; and secondly, it will confirm 
one of the most serious charges which I have 
made against Papists ; and thirdly it will prove to 
a demonstration, that Roman Catholic priests and 
bishops, who surround us and live amongst us, are 
a set of barefaced liars, whose entire disregard for 
truth fits them for no other society than that of 
brigands and felons. 

The reader will bear in mind that Roman Cath- 
olics are the loudest advocates of religious freedom. 
He will also not forget that I have charged them 
with being its most inveterate enemies. The Pa- 
pists and myself are now fairly at issue. 

Either they are right and I am wrong, or vice 
versa. I have sustained my accusation against 
them by proofs derived from their own general coun- 
cils, and from their uniform practice for centuries 
back. Still, these Catholics will say and assert 
publicly, in their pulpits, and at their meetings, 
religious and political, that they were always and 
are now the advocates of religious toleration. Let 
the past for a moment be forgotten. I presume 
no one will question what the practices of the Ro- 
mish church have been in relation to religious 
toleration in former times. Let us rather see 
what it is now among our neighbors in Madeira ; 
and as all Roman Catholics are a unit in faith and 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 197 

■practice, wo may judge from what we see m Ma- 
deira, of what may be seen, and if not seen, is felt, 
in the United States. I submit the following let- 
ter to my readers. It is from one of the most re- 
spectable meu in Madeira. 

" Religious Persecution in Madeira. We 
have just had a sort of miniature civil war. Dr. 
Rally, who has been converting the natives, is the 
original cause of it. He converted the woman 
they sentenced to death here not long since. 
Having been imprisoned, for some time, the doctor 
was at last liberated, and resumed his habit of 
preaching to the people in his house ; and it was 
not generally known, until within a short time, 
that he had made several hundred converts. On 
ascertaining this fact, the Governor, Don Oliva de 
Correa, at the request of the priests of the estab- 
lished church, who feared that the people might 
throw off their allegiance to the Roman Catholic 
church, appointed a country police to prevent the 
Protestants from assembling together. On Sunday 
week, the converts of St. Antonia de Sierra, while 
engaged in prayer, were assailed by the police, who 
broke in the door, knocked down the person who 
was officiating in the service, broke the benches, 
and dispersed the people, except four or five whom 
they took prisoners, and then proceeded to town. 
After going two miles, the police were overtaken 
by the populace, armed with pitchforks, rusty mus- 
kets, hoes, &c. 

'' The police were overpowered, and after being 
ducked in the river by the mob, they were tied 
together by the hands and feet and left on the 
road ; the Protestants returning to the mountams 
with their rescued comrades. One of the police 
officers, who escaped from the mob, made his way 



198 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

to town and a armed the government. Three hun- 
dred and fifty soldiers were immediately ordered 
out: the police were released from their confine- 
ment on the road-side, and the army marched to 
the villages of the '• Rallyites." The dwellings 
were fired indiscriminately ; several aged women, 
who could not fly to the mountains, were put to 
the torture, to make them reveal the places of con- 
cealment of the 'heretics.' The Catholic army 
then proceeded up the mountain to massacre the 
Protestants ; but in passing the foot of the hill they 
were assailed by the Protestants above, who threw 
down stones and rocks upon them, killing eight 
soldiers and wounded forty others severely. As 
soon as the troops could be gathered after their 
fright and alarm, they opened a deadly- fire upon 
the Protestants, chasing them five miles over the 
country, taking eighty or ninety prisoners, and kill- 
ing and woundiiig several of the unfortunate 
wretches. 

" The army marched their prisoners down to the 
sea-coast, to Machico, where they were put on 
board the Diana fifty gun frigate, and taken theiice 
to Funchal. The vessel of war, Don Pedro, Vv^as 
left at anchor on Machico to awe the countr3r, but 
another, the Youga, which had been despatched 
to Lisbon with official accounts of the battle, ran 
aground and had to return for repairs. The Don 
Pedro will therefore go to Lisbon. The captives 
will be sent to Lisbon, I suppose for trial, some 
time next week. Dr. Rally, the cause of the dis- 
turbance, remains at his house unmolested, which 
is singular. I don't think they will let him be 
quiet long. The Yorktown, American sloop-of-war, 
was here the other day. We have had a beautiful 
winter so far. About four hundred people have 
come here this year for the benefit of their health.'* 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 199 

The above letter Avas received in New York a 
few weeks ago, and needs no con.ment. If any Pa- 
pist doubts it, he can easily write to Madeira and 
ascertain its truth or falsehood. Until then he has 
no reason to be surprised if American Pnote'stants 
shall refuse to hold any connection or communion 
with them. 

There is one feature in the letter to which I 
would call the attention of the reader. It shows 
not only the persecuting spirit of Popery, but the 
uniformity and consistency of their mode of opera- 
tion. Go back to the former persecutions of the 
Popish church against the followers of Wicklifle 
and the Huguenots. The Wickliffites had to fly to 
the mountains for shelter ; but they were hotly pur- 
sued and cut down by the swords of their fiendish 
persecutors. They v/ere massacred and butchered, 
even in the fissures and caves of their native rocks 
and mountains. The Protestants in Madeira, only 
a few weeks ago, had to fly to the mountains from 
a bloodthirsty, Popish soldiery, headed by their 
priests and monks. There, at our very doors, and 
in a country with which we have treaties of friend- 
ship and alliance, American Protestants are butch- 
ered and slaughtered by Popish savages, under the 
mask of religion ; and when the news of tliis trans- 
action reached our own shores, what action has 
been taken upon the subject ? Was there any in- 
dignation meeting called? Were there any resolu- 
tions passed ? Were there any ambassadors ap- 
pointed in New England or elsewhere to ascertain 
the cause of this bloody tragedy ? Did our govern- 
ment demand any explanation from the authorities 
at Madeira ? The writer is not aware of any. Our 
government is too much occupied with affairs of 
more importance, viz., Who shall he Secretary of 
9* 



200 



State, ID no shall be Secretari/ of War. &c. The 
interest of morality seems a matter of minor im- 
portance with the "powers that be." The blood 
of our Protestant fellow-citizens, the cries of their 
widows and orphans cannot reach the eye or ear of 
our grave law-makers. The question with them 
seems, not what our country may become, by the 
treachery and persecutions of Popery, which are 
witnessed along the whole line and circumference 
of our own coast — a question of far more impor- 
tance to them seems to be, Who shall hold the fat- 
test office, or whether Massachusetts or South Caro- 
lina is in the right on the subject of the imprison- 
ment of a few citizens, belonging to the former, 
by the latter : while they witness all around, and 
in the very midst of them. Popish priests and 
bishops persecuting their fellow-citizens abroad, and 
gnawing at their very vitals at home. Fatal delu- 
sion this on the part of our government and people ! 

I have accused the Romish church and her priests 
of treachery, prevarication, and fraud, in all their 
dealings with Protestants. Their guilt has been 
established by proofs and evidences such as they 
cannot deny, viz., the canons of their church and 
their own admission. There is not a people in the 
world more anxious for correct information on all 
subjects than Americans ; and it is, therefore,, the 
more singular that the}^ should be so indifferent to 
the all-important subject of Popery. 

This, however, may be. accounted for, in some 
measure. The moral monstrosities — if 1 may use 
such language — of Popery, are such, that it requires 
something more than ordinary faith to believe them, 
and a greater power of vision than generally falls to 
the lot of man, even to look at them. There are 
objects on which the human eye rannot reft with- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 201 

out blinking, and upon which nothing bat force or 
fear can induce it to fix its gaze for any length of 
time. It will always gladly turn from them, and 
rest upon something else. This may account for 
the fact that my adopted countrymen and fellow 
Protestants pay so little attention to the subject of 
Popery, or the hideous crimes and revolting deeds 
wliich it has ever taught, and its priests have ever 
practised. 

I cannot otherwise account for the apparent in- 
difference and unconcern of our government and 
people on the subject of our relations with Catholic 
countries, and the encouragement given to Popish 
emissaries in the United States. I have myself seen 
so much of Popery, that my mind shrinks from the 
further contemplation of its iniquities. I can assure 
my Protestant friends, that nothing but an inherent 
love of liberty, and a desire, as far as in my power, 
to ward off that blow which I see Popery treacher- 
ously aiming at Protestants and the Protestant re- 
ligion in the United States, could ever have induced 
me* to publish these pages ; and, although I feel that 
I have already drawn too heavily on the indulgence 
of my readers, I cannot dismiss the subject without 
laying before them another evidence of Popish 
treachery, which occurred only a few weeks ago, 
on the island of Tahiti. 

It seems that in 1822, or thereabouts, an mdi- 
vidual, named M. Moerenhout, representing him- 
self a native of Belgium, arrived in Valparaiso, and 
obtained a situation as clerk from Mr. Duester, the 
Dutch consul in that city. After some time, he 
gains the confidence of his employer, on whom, to- 
gether with two more merchants, he prevailed to 
charter a vessel, and send a cargo by her to the So- 
cioty Islands, with himself as supercargo. They 



202 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

did so accordingly in 1829, and the ^vorthy super- 
cargo appropriated to his own use the whole profits 
of the voyage, and continued for sometime longer 
upon the island, selling whisky, brandy, and other 
liquors. In 1834, (says the Q-uarteily Review, from 
which, together with other sources, I derived my 
information,) this gentleman departed for Europe, 
with a view of communicating with the French 
government ; or rather, as I am informed upon good 
authority, to confer with the order of Jesuits in that 
country. On his way to Europe, this Moerenhout 
came to the United States, obtained some letters of 
introduction in New York and Boston, with which 
he proceeded to Washington ; and on the strength 
of them, was appointed United States' consul for 
Tahiti. With the title of consul-general of theUnited 
States, this diplomatist proceeds to France, and im- 
mediately — no doubt according to previous arrange- 
ment — entered into all the plans of the Jesuits for 
the extirpation of Protestantism in the Society 
Islands. He became the agent of the Propaganda 
in France, an institution placed under the patron- 
age of St. Xavier. The duty of converting all 
the islands of tlie Pacific, from the South to the 
North Pole, is committed to this Propaganda, and a 
decretal to that effect was confirmed by the Pope on 
the 22d June, 1823. A bishop was appointed for 
Eastern Oceania, and several- priests preceded him 
to the islands. Among these priests was an Irish 
catechist, by the name of Murphy. The bishop, it 
seems, established himself at Valparaiso, while the 
priests proceeded to Tahiti. 

I here give an instance of the manner in which 
those Popish missionaries discharge their duties. You 
vvill find it the October number of the Foreign Quar- 
terly Review. You may rely upon the statement 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 203 

The Popish missionaries have acted in the case just 
as 1 Should have done myself when a Romish priest, 
in ob'^dience to the instructions given by the infal- 
lihle church. 

" I always bear about me," says the, reverend 
Jesuit, Patailon, " a flask of holy water and another 
of perfume. I pour a little of the latter upon the 
child, and then, whilst its mother holds it out 
without suspicion, I change the flasks and sprinkle 
the water that regenerates, unknown to any one but 
myself." This is what the holy church calls a 
pious fraud ; and this is what the priests of Boston 
are doing, in a little different manner, to the chil- 
dren of Protestant mothers. In Tahiti, Popish 
priests make Christians by jugglery, under the very 
eye of the mother. In the United States they make 
Christians of Protestant children by ordering their 
Catholic nurses to bring them secretly to the priest's 
house to be baptized. 

But let us resume the subject of the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries from the Propaganda in Prance to Tahiti. 
The Jesuits, always wary and cautious, deemed it 
necessary, before they landed upon the island in a 
body, to send one of their number in advance, in 
order to ascertain " how the land lay," and what 
their prospects of success were ; and accordingly, 
in 1836, the Irish Jesuit, Murphy, proceeded alone, 
disguised as a carpenter, and landed safely at a place 
called Papeete. The unsuspecting inhabitants re- 
ceived the scoundrel among them just as Ameri- 
cans receive Jesuits in this country ; and while he 
was acting the traitor, and clandestinely writing 
to Jesuits, they shared with him the hospitality 
of their tables — precisely as Americans have done, 
for the last fifty years, to other Murphies, in this 
country 



204 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY. 

During this whole time that Murphy was on the 
island, working as a carpenter, he had secret in- 
terviews with the American consul, Moerenhout, 
until he succeeded in bringing into the island his 
brother missionaries. They could not, however, 
remain on the island without permission from the 
queen, and the payment of a certain sum of money. 
The queen refused them permission to remain, un- 
der any circumstances, fearing, as she well might, 
that some treason was contemplated against her 
government. The Jesuits called a meeting, and, 
under the patronage of the American consul, they 
urged their demand to remain, comparing them- 
selves to St. Peter, and the Protestants to St. 
Simon, the magician. I use the language of the 
Quarterly. 

I must here observe, in justice to our government, 
that the conduct of Moerenhout, United States' 
consul at Tahiti, was promptly disavowed, and he 
was immediately removed from office. But, not- 
withstanding the improper interference of the 
American consul, they were ordered to leave the 
island. It is due to the Protestant missionaries 
to state, that they took no part whatever in the 
expulsion of these Jesuits ; nor could they, in 
justice to themselves or to the cause of morality, 
interf(;re in preventing it. A French writer, 
speaking of the occupation of Tahiti, says : " The 
Catholic priests, instead of going to civilize bar- 
barous nations and checking debauchery, seem, 
on the contrary, only desirous of becoming rivals 
-o the Protestant ministers, and decoying away 
'.heir proselytes." As soon as the expelled Jesuits 
arrived in France, one of them proceeded to Rome, 
to consult with his holiness the Pope ; the result 
of which was, an immediate order to a French 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 205 

captain, named Dupetit Thouars, who was then 
stationed at Valparaiso, to proceed to Tahiti, and de- 
mand reparation for a supposed indignity to France. 

Here we see the influence of the Pope, and 
an evidence of Jesuit intrigue. In what consisted 
the alleged indignity to France ? Had not the 
queen of Tahiti the right to receive or refuse those 
Jesuit missionaries, if she had evidence that they 
were spies among her people ? If it appeared clear 
to her that the object of those reverend intriguers' 
visit was only to overthrow her government, and 
to decoy away from the path of virtue and re- 
ligion both herself and her subjects, what right 
had Louis Phillippe or the French government to 
look upon this as an indignity to the French na- 
tion ? The fact is, if the whole truth were known, 
Louis Phillippe knew but little of this aflTair, and 
his minister for foreign affairs, or some other mem- 
ber of his cabinet, was either imposed upon or 
bribed by Jesuits. 

A statement of the difficulties, into which the 
hitherto peaceful island of Tahiti has been thrown 
by Jesuits, could not fail to be interesting to my 
readers ; but, as the whole affair is to be found in 
the Foreign Quarterly, I refer the public to that 
work. I cannot, however, dismiss the subject, 
without asking the reader's particular attention to 
the Irish Jesuit^ Murphy, who figures so con- 
spicuously in the transaction. A brief view of the 
conduct of this reverend spy cannot fail to have a 
good effect, and must tend greatly to remove that 
delusion under which the Protestants of the United 
Stales have so long labored. 

I have been recently conversing with a very intel- 
.igent member of the Massachusetts legislature, on 
the subject of Jesuitical intrigue. I stated to him 



206 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

that it was a common practice among them, ever 
since the formation of that society, to keep spies in 
all Protestant countries, under various disguises and 
in different occupations. But though I had given 
him such proofs as could scarcely fail to satisfy any 
man, yet he replied, as American Protestants gen- 
erally do, on all such occasions, " Those times are 
gone hy. The Romish church is not at all noio, 
lohatit was in the days you speak of.^^ But, when 
the fact was made plain to him — when he learned 
from authority, admitting of no doubt, that only a 
few weeks ago, a Jesuit, and an Irishman too, crept 
into Tahiti in the disguise of a carpenter, and con- 
tinued to work there, in that character, until iie laid 
a proper foundation for the overthrow of the Protes- 
tant religion on that island, his incredulity seemed 
to vanish; the cloud, which so long darkened his 
vision, evaporated into thin air; and my impression 
is, that he no longer thinks our country safe, unless 
something is done to exclude forever all Papists, 
without distinction, from any participation in the 
making and administration of our laws. 

This Murphy, to whom allusion is made, ap- 
peared in great distress when he arrived among the 
natives of Tahiti. He seemed entirely indifferent 
upon the subject of religion ; all he wanted, appar- 
ently, was employment. This was procured for him 
among the simple natives by the Aincrican consul, 
both of whom soon united themselves together, ac- 
cording to some previous arrangement ; and, while 
they were '^breaking bread " with the natives^ they 
were laying plans for their destruction. A blow was 
aimed at their national and moral existence, and the 
death of both has nearly been the result. Thus we 
see a harmless and inoffensive people, only just res- 
cued from a savage state by the laudable efibrts of 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 207 

Protestant missionaries, partly thrown back again 
into their original condition by infidel Popish priests, 
whose ''god is their belly," whose religion \s alle- 
giance to their king, the Pope, and whose sports 
and pastimes consist in debauching the good and 
virtuous of every country. 

The flourishing condition of Tahiti, before the 
Jesuits found access to it, is well known in this 
country. Peace, plenty, and religion flourished 
among, its people — all produced by the efforts of our 
Protestant missionaries. But what sad changes have 
Jesuits effected among them ! By their intrigues 
they have caused a difficulty between Tahiti and 
France. The French government fancied itself 
insulted; false representations were made by the 
Jesuits; and, with the aid of their hrethreyi in 
France, the government was deceived and the isl- 
and blockaded, until reparation was made by the 
inoffensive queen, Pomare. I Avill quote an in- 
stance of the conduct of the French — all Roman 
Catholics, and under the advice of Jesuits — after 
they entered Tahiti. It is taken from the Foreign 
(Quarterly Review of October, and not denied by 
the French themselves. 

" After persuading four chiefs, who were author- 
ized to act in the absence of the queen, to affix their 
names to a document, asking ' French protection,' 
a boat was sent by the French captain, Dupetit 
Thouars, to a place called Eimeo, with 2, iper emptor y 
order for queen Pomare to sign it within twenty- 
four hours. 

"It was evening before the boat reached the place 
whither Pomare had retired with her family. Hei 
situation was one in which it is the custom for wo- 
men to receive the most anxious and respectful at- 
tention from all of the opposite sex, especially if 



i 



208 



SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 



tliey call themselves gentlemen. She was every 
moment expected to give birth to a child ; and, ac- 
cording to custom, had come to lie-in at Eimeo, 
leaving Paraita, who basely betrayed his trust, re 
gent in her absence. On learning the demand made 
by Thouars, the queen, surprised and alarmed, sent 
for Mr. Simpson, the missionary of the island, and 
a long and painful consultation ensued. Armed re- 
sistance was obviously impossible. The only al- 
ternative was between dethronement and protection. 
Pomare at first determined to choose the former, 
but her friends pressing round her, represented that 
Great Britain, the court of appeal whither all the 
grievances of the world are carried for redress, 
would certainly interfere ; that subjection would be 
but temporary, and that she would ultimately tri- 
umph. Stretched on her couch, in the first pangs 
of labor, the unfortunate queen withstood all sup- 
plications until near morning. Mr. Simpson ob- 
serves, that this was indeed 'a night of tears.' 
Many hours were passed in silence, interrupted only 
by the sobs of the suffering Pomare. 

" Let us leave her for a while, and turn to consider 
in what manner the French buccaneer and his crew 
passed the same night. We refer to no inimical 
statement. Our authority is a letter which went 
the round of all the Paris papers, written by an of- 
ficer on board the Reine Blanche, who did not seem 
to perceive any thing at all immoral in what he re- 
lated. His intention was merely to excite the envy 
of his fellow-countrymen by detailing the delights 
that were to be found in the new Cythera of Bou- 
gainville. We dare not follow him into his details. 
It will be enough to state that more than a hundred 
women were enticed on board the ship', and there 
compelled to remain all night, under pretence that 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 209 

it would be dangerous to row them back in the dark. 
Some were taken to the officers' cabin, others were 
sent to the youthful midshipmen, the rest to the 
crew. When this account made its appearance, the 
government, alarmed at the effect it might produce, 
pubhshed an official declaration in the ' Moniteur,' 
(30 Mars,) addressed to ' French mothers,' deny- 
ing the truth of the statement. But M. Guizot, or 
whoever directed this disavowal, merely argued 
from the silence of his own despatches — if they 
were silent — and not long before, in the voyage of 
Dumont d'Urville, published by royal ' ordon- 
nance,' a description of conduct, still more atro- 
cious, had been given to the world. 

'^ Towards morning, the sufferings of Pomare in- 
creasing, her resolution began to fail her, and at 
length she signed the fatal document. Then burst- 
ing into a flood of tears, she took her eldest son, 
aged six years, in her arms, and exclaimed, ' My 
child, my child, I have signed away your birth- 
right ! ' In another hour, with almost indescriba- 
ble pangs, she was delivered of her fourth child. 
Meanwhile the boat which carried the news of her 
yielding, sped for the port of Papeete. The sea 
was rough, and the wind threatened every moment 
to shift. The white sail was beheld afar off by the 
look-out on the mast of the Reine Blanche, and it 
was thought impossible she could reach by the ap- 
pointed time. Thouars, however, troubled himself 
but little about all these things. He was fixed in 
his resolve, that if the answer did not arrive before 
twelve he would bombard Papeete. The guns 
were loaded, gun-boats stationed along the shore ; 
and whilst the frightened inhabitants crowded down 
to the beach, beseeching, with uplifted hands, that 
their dwellings might be spared, the ruthless pirate, 



210 



bearing the commission of the king of France, was 
giving his orders, and burning to emulate the ex- 
ploits of Stopford and Napier at St. Jean d'^Acre, 
by destroying a few white-washed cottages on the 
shore of a little island in the Pacific. Hero ! wor- 
thy the grand cross of the legion of honor which 
was bestowed on him for this achieveme-nt 1 Worthy 
the sword raised by farthing subscriptions among 
' haters of the Enghsh,' which was presented to 
him for so distinguished an exploit! What exalta- 
tion must have filled his breast as he beheld the 
Avhite sail of the boat scud for a moment past the 
entrance of the port ; and what sorrow, when, by a 
skilful tack, it bore manfully along the very skirts 
of the breakers, and rushed through the hissing and 
boiling waters into the placid bay of Papeete, ex- 
actly one half hour before mid-day! 

" We must pass rapidly over the arrangements 
which followed. The treaty of protection pro- 
fessed to secure the external sovereignty to the 
French, but to leave the internal to the queen. 
The former, however, were em.powered ' to take 
whatever measures they might judge necessary for 
the preservation of harmony and peace.' When 
we learn that the ever recurring M. Moerenhout was 
appointed royal commissioner to carry out this 
treaty, we at once perceive that Pomare had in re- 
ality ceased to reign. How this base person em- 
ployed his power may be discovered from the fact, 
that it became his constant habit, when he desired 
to obtain the signature of the queen to any distaste- 
ful document, to vituperate her in the lowest lan- 
guage, and shake his fist in her face. 

" It has been asserted, in this country and else- 
where, that the passive resistance of the queen and 
people to the proper establishment of the protecto 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 211 

rate, did not begin until the arrival of Mr. Pritch- 
ard on the 25th of February, 1843. The object 
of this has been to attribute all the subsequent dif- 
ficulties experienced by the French to him. But 
the fact is well known, that before he made his ap- 
pearance the queen had written to the principal 
European powers, stating that she had been com- 
pelled against her will to accept the protectorate of 
France. On the 9th of February also, a great pub- 
lic meeting, presided at by the queen, was held, in 
which speeches of the most violent description 
were made. It was resolved, however, that by no 
overt act the French should be furnished with an 
excuse for further arbitrary proceedings. The de- 
termination come to, was to write for the opinion of 
Great Britain. 

" The morning after this meeting Moerenhout went 
to the queen and acted in a manner so gross and in- 
sulting, that she determined to complain to Sir 
Thomas Thompson, of the Talbot frigate, who 
promised her protection. All this happened, as we 
have seen, before the arrival of Mr. Pritchard, who, 
in truth, instead of proving a firebrand, introduced 
moderation and caution into the councils of Po- 
mare. Sir Toup Nicolas, it is true, commanding the 
Yindictive, which brought our consul to Tahiti, did 
go so far, despising some of the forms which were 
perhaps necessary, as threaten that unless the 
French ceased to molest British subjects, he would 
use force to compel them. He is said even to have 
cleared for action. When we consider what was 
daily passing under his eyes, there was some ex- 
cuse for this gallant captain's warmth. Setting 
aside the insults offered to our own countrymen, he 
was the spectator of constant tyrannical conduct 
towards the queen. Messrs. Reme and Vrignaud, 



212 

under whose name all this was done, were but in- 
struments in the hands of the sagacious Moeren- 
hout. The following letter of queen Pomare, 
hitherto, we believe, unpublished, will throw some 
light on his conduct. It is addressed to Toup Nic- 
olas, who took measures to fulfil the wishes it 
contains. 

' Paofae, March 5, 1844. 

* O Commodore, 
'I make known unto you that I have oftentimes 
been troubled by the French consul, and on ac- 
count of his threatening language I have left my 
house. His angry words to me have been very 
strong. I have hitherto only verbally told you of 
his ill-actions towards me ; but now I clearly make 
these known to you, O Commodore, that the French 
consul may not trouble me again. I look to you to 
protect me now at the present time, and you will 
seek the way how to do it. 

' This is my wish, that if M. Moerenhout, and 
all other foreigners, want to come to me, they must 
first make known to me their desire, that they may 
be informed whether it is, or is not, agreeable to 
me to see them. 

' Health and peace to you, 

' O servant of the Glueen of Britain, 
(Signed) 'Pomare, 

' Q.ueen of Tahiti, Mourea, &c. &c.' 

*' During the time that elapsed between the estab- 
lishment of the protectorate and the third visit of 
Dupetit Thouars to Tahiti, the only overt act 
which the French could complain of was the hoist- 
mg of a fancy flag by the queen over her house. 
Whatever difficulties existed at the outset, had been 
in reality overcome in spite of the ' intriguing Mr. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 21'^ 

Pritchard.' Even M. Guizot has declared in his 
place in the chamber of deputies : " There existed 
on the admiral's arrival none of those difficulties 
which are not to be surmounted by good conduct, 
by prudence, by perseverance, by time, or which 
requu'e the immediate application of force.' Nev- 
ertheless, on the first of November, 1843, our buc- 
caneering admiral entered the harbor of Papeete, 
and wrote immediately to inform the queen that 
unless she pulled down the flag she had hoisted, he 
would do so for her, and at the same time depose 
her. In spite of his threats, however, she refused 
compliance ; and Lieutenant D'Aubigny landed at 
the head of five hundred men, to occupy the island. 
The speech in which this person inaugurated French 
dominion in Tahiti was one of the richest speci- 
mens of bombast and braggadocia ever uttered. 

" Much merriment might be excited by its repeti- 
tion, but it has already caused the sides of Europe 
to ache, more than once. Suffice it to say, that the 
deposed queen fled on board the British ship of 
war, the Dublin, commanded by Capt. Tucker, and 
Papeete was, for many days, like a town taken by 
storm. Drunkenness, debauchery, rioting, filled its 
streets, and every means were taken to undo what 
the missionaries had, by half a century's labor, 
accomplished." 

The above is another, melancholy evidence of 
the spirit of Popery ; and if any thing can open the 
eyes of our people to a sense of danger from it, this 
evidence cannot fail to do so. I lay it down as a 
truth — though I may be censured for the boldness 
of such an assertion — that there is not a man of 
common sense, or ordinary penetration, who does 
not see, at a glance, that our danger as a nation, 
and our morals as a people, are eminently perilled 



214 SYNUFSIS OF POPERTj 

by the continuance of Popery amongst us. There 
are certain truths which need not be proved ; they 
prove themselves. Like the sun, which is seen by 
tsown light, they carry with them their own evi- 
dence ; and, among those self-evident truths, I see 
none more clear or more lucid, than that Popery, 
which has taken root in this country, will" — if not 
torn up and totally uprooted before long — dash to 
pieces the whole frame of our republic. Sympa- 
thizers^ Puseyites, and all other such bastard Prot- 
estants, may think differently. Be it so. Valueless 
as my opinion may be, let it be herein recorded, that 
I entirely disagree with them. 

It seems that another speck of Popery is just 
making its appearance on the north-west horizon of 
our national firmament. It appears, by accounts 
very recently received from Oregon, that the Prop- 
aganda in Rome has sent out a company of Jesuits 
and nuns to that territory. Popish priests and 
Jesuits seldom travel without being accompanied by 
nuns : they add greatly to their comforts while on 
their pilgrimage for the advancements of mo'^' ' ,^ 
and chastity. Hitherto the occupants of Oregon 
have advanced quietly. They have adopted a 
temporary form of government, established courts 
of law, and such municipal regulations as they 
deemed best calculated to forward their common 
interest. But the modern serpent^ Jesuitism, has 
already entered their garden : the tree of Popery 
has been planted: it is now in blossom, and will 
soon be seen in full bearing. It is truly a melan- 
choly reflection to think that this pest^ Popery, 
should find access to all places and to all people. 
One year will not pass over us, before the aspect 
of things in Oregon will be entirely changed. 
These Jesuits who arrived there have been pre- 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 215 

ceded b^ some Popish spy — some reverend Irish 
Murphy, in the capacity of carpenter, or perhaps 
horse-jockey, has gone before them, and has been 
laying plans for their reception. I venture to say, 
it will be discovered, at no distant day, that all the 
good which our Protestant missionaries have done 
there will soon be undone by Popish agents. They 
will commence, as they have done in Tahiti, by 
causing some panic among the resident settlers. 
They will find in Oregon, as well as in our United 
States, some functionary who may want their aid ; 
and he, like many of the unprincipled functionaries 
among ourselves, will give them his patronage in ex- 
change. 

Liberty has, in reality, but few votaries among 
officeholders, in comparison with Popery ; and this 
is one of the chief causes of the great advances 
which the latter is making, and has been making, 
especially for the last six or eight years. Look 
around you, fellow-citizens, and you will scarcely 
find an individual in office, from the President to 
the lowest office-holder, possessed of sufficient moral 
courage to raise his voice against Popery. Bat jus- 
tice to Americans requires me to say, that in this the 
great mass of the people are without blame — for 1 
cannot call certain leading, unprincipled politicians, 
the people. The first steps which foreign priests 
and Jesuits have taken, in disturbing the harmony 
of our republican system of government, might have 
been easily checked ; but those who have repre- 
sented the people, and who held offices of honor 
and emolument, were not, and will not be, distxirb- 
ed by a moment's reflection on a proper sense of 
their duty. The whole responsibility of the gross 
outrages offered to our Protestant country, by Popish 
priests and Papal allies, rests upon our representa- 
tives in Congress. They could, if they would, have 
10 



216 SYNOPSIS OF POPEHY, 

long since checked Popery ; and it is now higa 
time tliat the people shonld take this matter into 
their own hands, and so aher the constitutions of 
their respective states, as to exclude Papists from 
any positive or negative participation [a the creation 
or execution of their laws. 

Jesuits calculate with great accuracy upon tlie 
selfishness of man : they know that, generally 
speaking, it is paramount to all other considerations. 
Artful, intriguing, avaricious, and more licentious 
themselves than any other body of men in the 
world, they^oon discover all that is vulnerable in 
the American character, and take advantage of it. 
They discover that popular applause is greatly 
coveted by Americans ; and this is the reason why 
we see established among us so many repeal asso- 
ciations. The writer understands that several -of 
those associations are now formed in Oregon ; and it 
was at their request that the Pope had sent out 
Jesuits and nuns amongst them. Repeal is looked 
upon as the great lever by which the whole political 
world can be turned upside down. Its members 
meet in large numbers, in order to show the gullible 
Americans the consequent extent of their power, 
'and the great advantage which some officehunter 
may gain by bringing them over to his views. The 
bait has taken well hitherto ; but as we have — sol- 
emnly attested by the sign manual of the Pope him- 
self — seen his object in causing to be established 
repeal societies, the American, who continues here- 
after to encourage them, deserves the execration of 
every lover of freedom. The Pope tells Americans, 
through his agent, O'Connell, what the design and 
objects of all the movements of Papists in the 
United States are ; and I trust, when American? 
see them in their true colors, they will sink deeply 
into their hearts. 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 217 

Hear, then, I entreat you, Americans, the lan- 
guage of O'Connell, as the Pope's agent, as uttered 
by him in the Loyal National Repeal Association in 
Dublin, Ireland. It is addressed to Irish Catholics 
in the United Slates. Where you have the electoral 
franchise^ give your votes to nojie but those who 
■will assist you in so holy a struggle. You should 
do all in your power to carry out the pious inten- 
tions of his holiness the Pope. This is plain lan- 
guage ; there is no misunderstanding it. It is ad- 
dressed to Papists, whether in Oregon or the United 
States, and what are the pious intentions of the 
Pope ? I will tell you. I understand those matters 
probably better than you do. The object is, in the 
first place, to extirpate Protestantism ; a-nd^ secondly, 
to overthrow this republican government^ and 
-place in our executive chair a Popish king. This 
is the sole design of all the ramifications of the va- 
rious repeal clubs throughout the length and breadth 
of the United States and its territories. O'Con- 
nell — the greatest layman living — is the nuncio of 
the Pope for carrying this vast and holy design into 
execution. Will Americans submit to this? Will 
they again attend repeal associations ? Does not 
every meeting of the repeal party impliedly make 
an assault upon our constitution ? Is not this for- 
eign demagogue endeavoring to pollute our ballot- 
box ? and will you any longer trust an Irish Papist, 
who is the fettered slave of the Pope ? Aye ! a 
greater slave than the African, the Mussulman, or 
the Chinese. Never before was there such a com- 
bination formed for the destruction of American 
liberty, as that of Irish repealers^ and never before 
was such an insidious attempt made to pollute the 
morals of the wives and daughters of Americans, as 
that which Jesuits have for years made, and are 



218 SYNOPSIS OF POPERY, 

now makirig, by the introduction of priests and nun- 
neries among them. 

Repeal unchains the loud blasts of conspiracy, 
and opens the bloody gates of sedition ; yet this Re- 
peal lives in the very midst of us. I can almost 
hear, while I am writing these Hues, the wild 
shouts of its lawless members ; and to the shame 
and everlasting disgrace of Americans, the sons of 
free and noble sires, there are many of them, at 
the very repeal meetings to which I allude, aidirig 
and abetting them in aiming their mad and wild 
blows at liberty, while she sleeps sweetly, perhaps 
dreaming that she was safe, with the spirits of 
Washington, Warren, and others, watching over her 
slumbers. Sleep on, fair goddess ! Popish traitors 
cannot, shall not disturb thee. American Republi- 
cans will not let them ; and to you, Protestant for- 
eigners, I would most earnestly appeal. Let us 
stand by those noble patriots. We know what tyr- 
anny is 1 We felt many of its pains and penalties. 
We knoAV what Popery is ! It has desolated our na- 
tive land ! It has made barren our fairest fields ! It 
has sealed up from our parents, our brothers, sisters, 
and relatives, the eternal fountain of life ! It is 
drunk with the blood of the saints ! It has closed 
against us the gates of liberty ! It has rendered us 
strangers to its blessings, and it was not until we 
landed upon these shores, that we were first per- 
mitted to inhale its fragrance or taste its fruits. 
But now that we enjoy all these blessings, let us 
thank God for them. Let us be grateful to Ameri- 
cans for receiving us among them, and prove by our 
deeds that we are not unworthy of the kind and 
hospitable reception which they gave us, by being 
foremost amongst them in resisting and warding off 
the blows which that enemy of mankind, the Pope, 



AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. 219 

^.nd his foul-mouthed nuncio, Daniel O'Connell, 



with his Irish repealers, are striking at American 
freedom! They shall not succeed. The slaves of 
a Pope cannot succeed. 

" The sensual and the dark rebel in vain, 
Slaves by their own compulsion ! In mad game 
They burst their manacles, and wear the name 
Of freedom, graven on a heavier chain 
O Liberty ! with profitless endeavor 
Have I pursued thee many a weary hour ; — 
But thou nor sweil'st the victor's strain, nor ever 
Didst breathe thy soul in forms of human power. 
Alike from all, howe'er they praise thee — 
Nor prayer, nor boastful name delays thee — 
Alike from priestcraft's harpy minions, 
-And factious blasphemy's obscener slaves. 
Thou speedcst on thy subtle pinions. 

The guide of homeless winds, and playmate of the waves! 
And there I felt thee ! — on that sea-clifTs verge, 
Whose pines, scarce travelled by the breeze above, 
Had made one murmur with the distant surge ; — 
Yea, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare, 
And shot my being through earth, sea, and air. 
Possessing all things with intensest love, 
O Liberty ! ray spirit felt thee there ! " 



AURICULAR CONFESSION 



AND 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



BT 



WILLIAM HOGAN. 

POmiflALT &OMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, AKD AUTHOR OF 'POFKBT Al It 
WAS AND AS IT IS.' 



VOLUME f. 



HARTFORD: 

PUBLISHED BY SILAS ANDHUS AND SON 

1SF4. 



tntored according to Ai>i of Congress, in the year 1S«, 

By W I h L 1 9 af H O O A N , 

lo the Clerk's O-^ne of the District v^ourt of the District of .MaaeuchesetU. 



TO THE PUBLIC. 

Tje readers of the following work, who have not any acquaint- 
Ance with the author, may wish to know who he is, in order to 
enable them to ascertain what degree of credit is due to his state- 
ments. We are permitted to publish the following documents, 
which show that the author is a member of the Georgia bar, and 
that his standing among his brethren is that of a moral, upright, 
and honorable gentleman. This is a high character— as high as any 
man can produce, or any American citizen require — and entitles Mr. 
Hogan's statements to full credit, in the estimation of every honest 
man and impartial reader of this work. 

[Certificate from Judge Wayne.] 

State of Georgia. 

At a Superior Court hoi den in and for the County of Effingham, at 

November Term, 1827. 

Know all men by these presents, that, at the present sitting of this 

Court. William HoaAN made his application for leave to plead and 

practise in the several Courts of Law and Equity in this Sta^e : 

Whereupon, the said William Hogan having given satisfactory cvi- 

'^.ence of good moral character, and having been examined in open 

Court, and being found well acquainted and skilled in the laws, he 

was admitted by the court to all the privileges of an Attorney 

Solicitor and Counsellor, in the several Courts of law and Equity 

m this State. 

In Testimony whereof the presiding Judge has hereunto set 
[L. S.] his hand, with his seal annexed, (there being no Seal of 
Court,) this first day of November, 1827. 
Jwo. Chas. Ston, Clerk. James M. Wayne. 



ICertificate from Judge Law.] 
I hereby certify that the within named William Hogan, has been 
at the bar of the Eastern Circuit of Georgia, since November Term, 
1827, the date of his admission, and that he has conducted himself, 
during my acquaintance with him at this bar, as an Attorney and 
Counsellor at Law, with uprightness and integrity of character. 
"» William Law, 

Judge Sup. Courts, East District, Georgia. 
Savannah, 25th June, 1832. 
10* 



Savannah, 25th June, 1832. 

Dear Sir, — ^Understanding from you that it is your intention to 
jeave the State, with a view to the practice of the law elsewhere ; it 
will, I apprehend, be necessary that the certificate of admission to 
our bar, furnished you by the Clerk, should be accompanied by 
a certificate from myself as the presiding Judge of the Couit in 
which yoa were admitted. This is necessary to give it authenticity 
in another State. It will afford me pleasure to append that verifica- 
tion to it, if you will be pleased to send me the certificate. 

Permit me, as you are about to leave us, to offer you my humble 
testimony to your correct and upright deportment as an advocate at 
the bar of the Superior Courts of the Eastern District of Georgia, 
since your admission to the practice of the law in the same. 

"Wishing you success and prosperity wherever you may settle, I 
am, dear sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

William Law. 



[Becommendation from the Georgia Bar.] 

Savannah, June, 1632. 
"We, the undersigned members of the bar of Savannah, having 
been informed that Wm. Hogan, Esq., in consequence of ill health, 
is about removing to a northern climate, take leave to state that he 
has been admitted to practise as Attorney, Solicitor and Counsellor 
in all the Courts of Law and Equity in this State. 

Mr. Hogan has been a resident of this city for some years, during 
which time, we further feel a pleasure in stating that his profes 
sional standing among us, has been that of a moral and honorable 
gentleman, and as such, recommend him to the professional atten- 
tions of the Honorable the Judges and members of the bar generally, 
wherever his health may induce him to locate himself. 

Thos. U. p. Charlton, 
Jno. C. Nicoll, 
W. W. Gordon, 
Rich. W. Habersham, 

K. li. CCVLER, 

Levi S. D'Lyoh. 



INTRODUCTION. 

" Three score years and ten," and those often full of 
care and anxiety, seem to constitute the space of human 
life. So it is said in that venerable volume, which never has 
been, and never can be equalled, in beauty of truth, wisdom, 
and instruction. This, it would seem, ought to check all 
the vain and inordinate aspirations of poor, weak man ; yet 
it has not, and probably never will do so. To a reflecting 
mind, nothing can appear stranger than this. Notwith- 
standing this solemn truth, such is the presumption of 
man, that he has often dared, — and does so at this mo- 
ment, — to set himself up as the viceroyal or vicegerent 
of the King of Heaven ; and fancies himself sent upon this 
earth for the purpose of rectifying or correcting any mi? 
takes or defects which might have escaped the vigilance 
of the great I Am, in the organization and fitness of things 
This is truly a serious and melancholy reflection. 

The population of this world of ours is supposed to 
amount to 812,553,712. Of this vast number, 137,000,000 
are Roman Catholics, who now, on the 19th of July, 1S45, 
bend the knee and bow down in homage to a weak, help- 
less, and worthless being, the Pope of Rome ; and thus, if 
history does not deceive us, proving themselves conspir- 
ators against the happiness of the human race. 

To meliorate the condition of this almost countless mul- 
titude of our fellow-creatures, is among the first duties of 
every good man. No one is exempted from it; not the 
king nor the peasant; not the sage nor the philosopher; 
not the priest nor the layman; for there are as many 
modes of discharging this duty, as there are grades in the 
social system* 



226 INTRODUCTION. 

As a. member of the human family, and be'tng once an 
nstructor myself, I feel that I have too Jong neglected this 
common duty. Many suns, and many shades, too, have 
passed over me, without doing much in the great work of 
promoting the happiness of my fellow-beings ; and if I can 
•nake any atonement for this omission, by devoting the 
necessarily short period of the remnant of my life for the 
benefit of others, I shall retire to my eternal home with 
feelings of happiness which I have not enjoyed for years. 

With a clear and full view of my duty, I have recently 
written a work entitled, " A Synopsis of Popery as it was, 
and as it is." It has been well received; it awakened 
Americans to a proper sense of their duty. Until then 
they saw not, they felt not, they dreamed not of the dan- 
gers which threatened their religion and their civil rights 
from the stealthy movements of the Church of Rome, and 
her priests and bishops, in this country. Americans have 
now a steady and watchful eye upon them. This was 
necessary, and so far, I have done my duty. The Popish 
presses, which, until then, had lulled Americans into 
fatal repose by their misrepresentations, have been, in a 
measure, silenced. No one, before me, dared to encounter 
their scurrilous abuse. I resolved to silence them ; and I 
have done so. The very mention of my name is a terror 
to them now; though, until the appearance of my book, 
there was not a Popish press in the United States, which 
did not weekly, almost daily, abuse me in the most scur- 
rilous manner; ar>d in my apprehension, a stronger evi- 
dence cannot be given of the iniquity of Popish priests 
and bishops who edit those presses, than tKis very fact. 

Protestant writers in the United States have long been 
kept in check by the bullying and vaporing of Popish 
priests, when some resolution and a little tact, might at all 
times have silenced them. I found no difficulty in muz- 
zling the whole body; and the mode of doing it was sug- 



INTRODUCTION. 0017 

gesled to me by a little incident in my own life. "Will the 
reader allow me to relate it ? 

As soon as I was admitted to the practice of law, I wens^ 
into partnership with a Mr. Gray, a young gentleman of 
promising talents and gentlemanly manners. Our office 
was in one of the upper districts of South Carolina, sep- 
arated only by a narrow river, from the State of Georgia, 
where I have resided ever since. There was at the back 
of our office, a swamp, containing, — if we may judge from 
the noise they made, — myriads of frogs, ugly and filthy as 
the slime from which they sprung. As soon as the sun of 
heaven retired to its home in the west, and darkness cov- 
ered the face of the earth and the waters, these frogs set 
up a most hideous chorus, — ^just as Papists have done for 
more than twenty years, against myself. The noise be- 
came a perfect nuisance to me. I felt at a loss how to 
silence these filthy frogs. I purchased and borrowed every 
work I could get upon frogs, to see if any remedy had 
been discovered to abate this nuisance ; but all to no pur- 
pose. On they went, night after night ; nothing could be 
heard but croak, croak, croak. Finally, I became impa- 
tient, when necessity, which is properly called, "the 
mother of invention," suggested to me the following rem- 
edy, which, I believe, might have been tried before. I 
procured a well-lignted lantern, concealed it under a thick 
overcoat, went down to the pond, sat patiently on its bank 
until the frogs commenced their evening chorus ; but just 
as they were upon their highest notes, I uncovered my 
lantern, and threw its full blaze of light over the whole 
surface of the pond. Instantly, as if by magic, 

" Every frog was at rest, 
And I heard not a sound." 

It occurred to me, that a similar experiment might, with 
equal advantage, be made upon Popish priests and confes- 
sors. I knew no other living animal or creeping thing, so 



228 INTRODUCTION. 

closely resembling these frogs in repulsiveness, as a Ro- 
mish priest or bishop who hears confessions. I resolved 
to throw light upon them, and show them to each other 
and to the world, in their native deformity. I published 
my book on Popery ; I threw the light of my experience 
as a Popish priest, upon the whole body. The result has 
been entirely satisfactory. Never, since then, has a Popish 
priest, Popish bishop, or Popish press, published a single 
sentence against me. How truly is it said in holy writ, 
" Resist the devil, and he "vvill flee from you." I have re- 
sisted Popish priests ; they have fled from me ; and if the 
reader will do me the honor of perusing the following 
pages, he will see that I am still pursuing them in full 
chase ; nor do I feel disposed to abandon my pursuit, until 
they renounce allegiance to the Pope of Rome, and become 
true, peaceable, moral, and well-behaved citizens of the 
United States. 

WILLIAM HOGAN. 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND POPISH 
NUNNERIES. 



When a writer acknowledges, in advance, that he 
cannot relate the whole truth, his position is far 
from being enviable. It augurs badly for what he 
writes, and so far places him in a disadvantageous 
light before the public. This is, however, precisely 
the condition in which I now find myself Such is 
the nature of the subject on which I feel it my duty 
to write, that I shrink with native abhorrence from 
relating, at least, the whole truth. It is repugnant 
to my feelings, to my taste, and at variance with 
the general tone of my conversation, ever since the 
God of purity enabled me to disentangle myself from 
the society of Romish priests and bishops, — men 
whose private lives and conversation with each 
other and with their penitents in the confessional, 
breathe nothing but the grossest licentiousness and 
foetid impurities. 

I do not wantonly and without provocation make 
any expose of the iniquities of Popery. My entire 
life, since I left them, is evidence of this ; but they 
have pursued me with such persevering malignity 
and demoniac malice, that further silence would be 
criminal and disrespectful to my Protestant fellow- 
citizens, from whom, notAvithstanding the malice of 
papists towards me, I have always experienced kind 



230 AURIOTTLAR CONFESSION AND 

attentions and hospitality. Nor should I, even now, 
allow the subject of Popery to occupy my mind, or 
taint the current of my thoughts, if I did not see it 
striding with fearful rapidity over the fair face of 
this my adopted country, infusing itself into ev^ery 
political nerve and artery of our government, vsrhile 
its members are asleep and dreaming of its future 
glories. 

It is not pleasant to me to contend with papists, 
who look upon it as a matter of duty, and as a fun- 
damental article of their faith, to persecute myself 
and all other heretics. That they should dislike me, 
is not a matter of surprise ; that men whose confes- 
sions I have heard, and who have heard mine, should 
even dread me, is not to be wondered at. Many of 
these men deserve (I speak of bishops and priests 
exclusively) not only public censure, but the gibbet, 
the dungeon and the gallows. I cannot blame men, 
under these circumstances, for detesting my very 
name. They are in my power — they tremble in my 
presence — and were I to blame them for some degree 
of opposition and dislike to me, I should be quarrel- 
ling with that instinct which teaches the profligate 
and debauchee to shun the society of a virtuous and 
upright man. While I live among papists they are 
naturally afraid that I should lift the veil, which 
conceals from the eyes of Americans the def )rmities 
of Popery. They are in momentary fear that I 
shall show to their American co7iverts, which 
Bishop Fen wick of Boston says he " is daily making 
from the first families," the Old Lady of Rome in 
her dishabille. They have long hidden from them 
her shrivelled, diseased, distorted, and disgusting 



POPISH NUNNERIES. '31 

proportions, and they are unwilling that this painted 
harlot should be now seen by Americans. This is 
good policy, and hence much of their opposition to 
me. A curse seems to have rested upon Rome 
since its very foundation. Pagan, as well as modern 
Rome, seemed always to delight in deeds of dark- 
ness. 

We are told in history of a singular practice illus- 
trative of this in ancient Rome. I mention it merely 
to show the apparent natural fondness of Romanists, 
ancient as well as modern, for deeds of darkness. 
ItAs trifling in itself, and may be deemed, perhaps, 
irrelevant ; but it may be interesting to the historian, 
whose curiosity extends further than that of theo- 
logians or moralists. 

The ancient Romans were epicures. Some say 
they were greater gluttons than those of the present 
day. Poultry, of all kinds, was a favorite dish with 
them, and how to fatten fowl most expeditiously, 
became a question of vital importance with the phi- 
losophers of the Eternal City. After several experi- 
ments, it was found that the best plan was to close 
up the eyes of geese, turkeys, ducks, and all other 
kinds of poultry, and, in that condition, cram and 
stiiff them with food. This succeeded admirably. 
The fowls fattened in less than half the time. 

It seems that man was always, as well as now, a 
progressive animal, and accordingly, as soon as 
Popery fixed its head-quarters at Rome or at Antioch, 
no matter which for the present, popish bishops com- 
menced a similar experiment upon man. Anxious 
for his conversion to the iJtjallible church, they 
determined to cli)se his eyes and compel him to 



^32 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

receive from themselves, as so many turkeys ana 
geese would from their feeders, such food as they 
pleased to give them. They were not to question 
its quality, hut, like so many hlinded geese, swallow 
all that was given them. The practice continues to 
the present day in the Romish church ; even Ameri- 
can converts to Romanism are not to question the 
quality of the food, or spiritual instructions, which 
popish priests please to give them. Blind obedience 
is a necessary article of spiritual diet for a convert 
to Popery ; and whether his priest tells him that he 
must worship God, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter and 
St. Paul, or the wafer which he carries in his pocket 
and calls the body and blood of Christ, he must obey 
without murmur or inquiry. 

This unreasonable, unscriptural, and impious doc- 
trine, is inculcated especially in the confessional. 
No man, not even a papist, dare preach in public 
such a dogma as bhnd obedience in anything, or to 
any man. I have always been instructed, while a 
Catholic priest, never to intimate in public that the 
Romish church ever required unconditional submis-' 
sion to her will, unless I was morally certain that 
all my hearers were by birth and education Roman 
Catholics; but my orders were positive, and under 
^ain of losing my sacerdotal faculties, never to 
lose an opportunity of inculcating this in the con- 
fessional. There and there alone do Romish priests 
teach and fasten upon the minds of their penitents, 
all the iniquities which the church of Rome sanc- 
tions. 

If 1 can satisfy Americans that Atiricular Confess 
sion is dangerous to their liberties ; if I can show 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 233 

them thai it is the source and fountain of many, if 
not all, those treasons, debaucheries, and other 
evils, which are now flooding this country, I shall 
feel that I have done an acceptable work, and some 
service to the State. I fear, however, that I shall fail 
in this ; not because what I state is not true, and 
even admitted to be so, but because Americans seem 
determined, — I would almost say fated, — to political 
and moral destruction. 

For twenty years I have warned them of ap- 
proaching danger, but their politicians were deaf, 
and their Protestant theologians remained religiously 
coiled up in fancied security, overrating their own 
powers and undervaluing that of Papists. Even 
though they see and feel, and often blush at the 
logical triumph, which popish controversialists have 
gained, and are gaining over them in every intellec- 
tual combat in which they engage ; yet such is their 
love of ease or love of money, or something else, that 
they cannot be roused until the enemy falls upon 
them with an annihilating force. It is painful to me 
to see this indifference upon their part. They are 
better able than I am to contend with Papists. They 
possess more talents, and have more friends than I 
have to sustain them. This is the land of their 
birth. It is not mine, but not the less dear to me. 
The religion of this country is the religion of their 
forefathers, and of the Bible; it is peculiarly their 
duty to defend both. 

Nothing could induce me to undertake the present 
work, but the universal approbation which my 
recent book on Popery has received from the political 
and religious journals of the country. I should 



234 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

leave it to be done by Protestant theologians. The 
notices which my book on Popery has received were 
flattering. They gave me credit for talents, candor 
and frankness. But I am in reality entitled to no 
credit for that book. The utterance of the truths 
contained in it, was a spontaneous emotion. It was 
(if I may use such language) but the breaking loose 
of some moral iceberg, which for years lay heavily 
on my soul. It was a sort of inspiration fanned into 
a blaze, by an irresistible consciousness that I had 
too long neglected a duty which I owed to my God 
and my adopted country. But I now feel relieved, 
Aid willing to enlist in the cause of morals and civil 
rights. 

The following pages, I apprehend, will appear to 
some of rather a random and fugitive character. It 
will be said that much of the matter is irrelevant — 
that I fly too rapidly from one subject to another. 
To such men I will say, that they know very little 
of Romish intellectual tactics. A well trained reve- 
rend Romish soldier cares little about the polish of 
his armor, or whether he aims his blows according 
to the system of this or that commander. He steps 
into the battle arena in his lightest armor, and with 
his sharpest weapon. A Protestant theologian meets 
him, with a face as solemn as if he was accompanying 
to the grave all that was dear to him, wearing his 
heaviest coat of mail, and armed with claymores and 
battle-axes. While the latter is wasting his strength 
upon the desert air, and aiming his harmless blows 
at every spot but the right one, the papist goads 
him to death, and seldom fails to obtain the crown 
of victory from the spectators. Many Protestants 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 235 

who are in the habit of contending with Papists in 
this manner, will disapprove of this book ; but I trust 
that in diifering from them in my mode of warfare 
with Papists, they will, on reflection, see that, 
although they may be right, I am not wrong. 1 
shall therefore beg leave to pursue my own course. 
I will give my ideas to the public just as they 
strike me, fresh from my own mind, with no regard 
whatever to style, ornament or criticism ; and I am 
vain enough to wish that all controversialists, and 
even all Protestant and Popish writers, should pursue 
a similar course. We should then have more truth in 
controversy, more soul and more sterling morality in 
religion. All that is artistical and pedantic would 
be exploded, and truth, fresh and warm from the 
heart, would be substituted in their place. 

Every crime, as I have stated before, which the 
Romish church sanctions, and almost all the immor- 
alities of its members, either originate in or have 
some connection with Auricular Confession ; and in 
order to explain this to my readers, it will be neces- 
sary for me to go back and state the causes which 
first induced me to doubt the infalUbllity of the 
Romish church. 

I have often been asked the following question : 
Why did you leave the Roman Catholic church? 
Before I answer this question, I may well exclaim, 
in the language of the ancient poet, omitting only 
one word, "Oh! nefandum, jubes, renovare dolorem." 
But however painful the relation may be; however 
"flensive to the ears of the virtuous and chaste; 
however disgusting to the pions and moral portion 
of our commiiiiit^^ : however at variance with the 



236 Aur:cuLAR confession and 

elegances and formalities of private life; however 
heavily such a narrative may fall upon Roman 
priests and bishops, and disreputable it may be to 
Nu?is and Nunneries, I will answer the above ques- 
tion, so often and so frankly put to me by many even 
of my personal friends. 

Several causes have contributed to induce me to 
doubt the infallibility of the Popish church, and to 
renounce its ministry altogether. Among the first 
was the following : 

When quite young and but just emerging from 
childhood, I became acquainted with a Protestant 
family living in the neighborhood of my birthplace. 
It consisted of a mother (a widow lady) and three 
interesting children, two sons and one daughter. 
The mother was a widow, a lady of great beauty 
and rare accomplishments. The husband, who had 
but recently died, one of the many victims of what 
is falsely called ho7ior^ left her, as he found her, in 
the possession of a large fortune, and, as far as 
worldly goods could make her so, in the enjoyment 
of perfect happiness. But his premature death 
threw a gloom over her future life, which neither 
riches nor wealth, nor all worldly comforts combined 
together, could efiectually dissipate. Her only plea- 
sure seemed to be placed in that of her children. 
They appeared — and I believe they really were — 
the centre and circumference of her earthly happi- 
ness. 

In the course of time the sons grew up, and their 
guardian purchased for both, in compliance with 
their wishes, and to gratify their youthful ambition, 
commissions in the army. The parting of these 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 237 

cliildren. the breaking up of this fond trio of broth- 
ers and sister, was to the widowed mother anothei 
source of grief, and tended to concentrate, if possible, 
more closely all the fond affections of the mother 
upon her daughter. She became the joy of her 
heart. Her education while a child was an object 
of great soUcitude, and having a fortune at her com- 
mand, no expense was spared to render it suitable 
for that station in life, in which her high connec- 
tions entitled her to move when she should become 
of age. The whole family were members of the 
Protestant church, as the Episcopal church is called 
in that country. As soon as the sons left home to 
join their respective regiments, which were then on 
the continent, the mother and daughter were much 
alone, so much so, that the fond mother soon dis- 
covered that her too great affection for her child and 
the indulgence given to her were rather impeding 
than otherwise her education. She accordingly 
determined to remove her governess, who up to this 
period was her sole instructress, under the watch- 
ful eye of the fond and accomplished mother herself,^ 
and send her to a fashionable school for young 
ladies. There was then in the neighborhood, only 
about twenty miles from this family, a Nunnery of 
the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was attached 
a school superintended by nuns of that order. The 
school was one of the most fashionable in the coun- 
try. The nuns who presided over it, were said to 
be the most accomplished teachers in Europe. The 
expenses of an education in it were extravagantly 
high, but not beyond the reach of wealth and 
fashion. The mother, though a Protestant, and strict 



^^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

and conscientious in the discharge of all the duties 
of her church, and not without a struggle in parting 
with her child and consigning her to the charge of 
Jesuits, yielded in this case to the malign influence 
oi fashion^ as many a fond mother does even in this 
our own land of equal rights and far-famed, though 
mock equality — sent her beautiful daughter, her 
earthly idol, to the school of these nuns. Let the 
result speak for itself. 

Up to the departure of the sons for the army, and 
this daughter for the nunnery, 1 had been ever 
from myrinfancy acquainted with this family, and 
had for them the highest respect and warmest 
attachment. The elder brother was about my own 
age, and only a few years between the eldest and the 
youngest child. 

Soon after the daughter was sent to school, I 
entered the College of Maynooth as a theological 
student, and in due time was ordained a Roman 
Catholic priest by particular dispensation^ being two 
years under the canonical age. An interval of some 
years passed before I had an opportunity of meeting 
my young friend again; our interview was under 
peculiar circumstances. I was ordained a Romish 
priest, and located where she happened to be on a 
visit. There was a large party given, at which, 
among many others, I happened to be present ; and 
there meeting with my friend and interchanging the 
usual courtesies upon such occasions, she — sport- 
ively, as I then imagined — asked me whether I 
would preach her reception sermon^ as she intended 
becoming a nun and taking the lohite veil. Not even 
dreaming of such an event, I replied in the affirma- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 239 

live. 1 lieara no more of the affair for about two 
mouths, when I received a note from her designat- 
ing the chapel, the day and the hour she expected 
me to preach, I was then but a short time in the 
ministry, but sufficiently long to know that up to the 
hour of my commencing to read Popish theology, 
especially that of Dens and Antoiiie de Peccatis, I 
knew nothing of the iniquities taught and practised 
by Romish priests and bishops. 

On the receipt of my friend's note, a cold chill 
crept over me ; I anticipated, I feared, I trembled, 1 
felt there must be foul play somewhere. However, 1 
went according to proniise, preached her reception 
sermon at the request of the young lady, and with 
the special approbation of the Bishop, whom I had 
to consult on such occasions. 

The concourse of people that assembled on this 
occasion was very great. The interest created by 
the apparent voluntary retirement from the world 
of one so young, so wealthy and so beautiful, was 
intense, and accordingly the chapel in which I 
preaclied was filled to overflowing with the nobility 
and fashionables of that section of the country. 
Many and large were the tears which were shed, 
when this beautiful young lady cut oft' her rich and 
flowing tresses of hair. Reader, have you ever seen 
the description which Eugene Sue, in his Wander- 
ing Jew, gives of the lustrous, luxurious and rich 
head of hair worn by Charlotte De Cardoville, and 
shorn from her head by Jesuits, under the pretence 
that she was insane? If you have not, take the 
Wandering Jew, turn over its pages till you find it. 
and you will see a more accurate description of that 
11 



240 



AUPwICULAR CONFESSION AND 



shorn from the head of the young lady to whom I 
allude, than 1 can possibly give. 

Turn back to the picture given by this same 
Eugene Sue, of the personal beauty, piety, charity, 
and many virtues of Mademoiselle De Cardoville, 
and you will have a correct portrait of this young 
lady of whom I speak. You may therefore easily 
judge, from her immolation upon the altar of fanati- 
cism, or, more properly speaking, her personal sacri- 
fice to the idol of Popish and Jesuit lust, the nature 
of that feeling which such an event must have pro- 
duced in the mind of every Christian believer. 

Having no clerical connection with the convent in 
which she was immured, I had not seen her for three 
months following. At the expiration of that time, 
one of the lay sisters of the convent delivered to 
me a note. I knew it contained something startling. 

These lay sisters among Jesuits, are spies belong- 
mg to that order, but are sometimes bribed by the 
nuns for certain purposes. As soon as I reached my 
apartments, I found that my young friend expressed 
a wish to see me on something important. I, of 
course, lost no time in calling on her, and being a 
priest, r was immediately admitted ; but never have I 
forgot, nor can I forget, the melancholy picture of lost 
beauty and fallen humanity, which met my aston- 
ished gaze in the person of my once beautiful and vir- 
tuous friend. I had been then about eighteen months 
a Romish priest, and was not without some knowledge 
of their profligate lives; and therefore I was the bet- 
ter prepared for and could more easily anticipate what 
was to come. After such preliminary conversation 
as may be expected upon occasions of tliis kind, the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 241 

young lady spoke to me to the following effect, if not 
literally so. I say literally^ because so deep, and 
strong, and lasting was the impression made upon 
my mind, that I believe I have not forgotten one let- 
ter of her words. 

"1 sent for you, my friend, to see you once more 
before my death. I have insulted my God, and 
disgraced my family ; I am in the family way^ and 
I must die." After a good deal of conversation, 
which it is needless to repeat, I discovered from 
her confession the parent of this pregnancy, and 
that the mother abbess of the convent advised her 
to take medicine which would effect abortion; but 
that she knew from the lay sister who delivered me 
the note, and who was a confidentieil servant in the 
convent, that the medicine which the mother abbess 
would give her should contain poison, and that the 
procuring abortion was a mere pretext. I gave her 
such advice as I could in the capacity of a Romish 
priest. I advised her to send for the bishop and 
consult him. " I cannot do it," said she. " My de- 
stroyer IS my confessor." I was silent. I had no 
more to say. I was bound by oath to be true to him. 
In vain did the noble sentiment even of the Pagan 
occur to me; a sentiment sanctioned almost by 
inspiration itself. It fled from my mind as smoke 
before the wind. I was one of the priests of the 
infallible churchy and what was honor, what was 
honesty to me, where the honor of that infallible 
church was concerned 7 They were of no account ; 
not worthy the consideration of a Rom,ish priest for a 
second. The almost heavenly sentiment of the no- 
ble Pagan, ^^ Fiat justitia^ mat cce/wm," let justice 



242 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

be done even if the heavens were to fall, fled from 
my mmd. I retired, leaving my friend to her fate, 
but promising, at her request, to return in a fortnight. 

According to promise, I did return in a fortnight, 
but the foul deed was done. She was no more. The 
cold clay contained in its dread embrace all that now 
remained of that being, which, but a few months be- 
fore, lived, and moved in all the beauty and symme- 
try of proportion ; and that soul, once pure and spot- 
less as the dew-drop of heaven, ere its contact with 
the impurities of earth, which a fond mother con- 
fided to the care of Jesuit nuns, had been driven in 
its guilt and pollution into the presence of a just but 
merciful God. All, all, the work of Jesuits and 
Nuns ! 

This was the first check my Popish enthusiasm 
met with ; and now for the first time did a doubt of 
the infallibility of the church of Rome enter my 
mind. After witnessing these events I could not 
help asking myself, can a church which sanctions 
and countenances such flagitious iniquities as I have 
just witnessed, be a Christian church 7 Can a body 
of men, who individually practise such deeds of 
blood, treachery and crime as those which I have 
seen, be, collectively, infallible 7 Are these the men 
whom the Saviour commissioned, in a particular 
manner, to preach the gospel to every creature? 
Are these the men, as a body, with whom he prom- 
ised to be always, even to the consummation of the 
world? Are these the men who collectively con- 
stitute an infallible church? If so, unprofitable 
indeed has been my life. It is high time to come 
out from among them; and if I cannot live the life 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 243 

of luxury and ease, of sin and crime which a Rom- 
ish priest can Hve, let me, at least, live that of an 
honorable man, and a useful member of society. 

These were some of my reflections; and accord- 
ingly, that evening, I called on the Right Reverend 

Protestant bishop of , with a view of making 

a public recantation of my belief in the doctrine of 
the Roman Catholic church. But as chance would 
have it, he was out of town that week, and when 
next I made an effort to see him I found that effort 
in vain. I had not properly weighed the chains 
that bound me to Popery. I knew not their length, 
nor their strength. They were stronger than ada- 
mant, than steel. They were chains woven for me, 
in some measure, by beings that I loved. They 
were thrown around me and fastened to me by hands 
that I reverenced. They were the chains of early 
education- I could not break them; they were too 
strong for me. The force which alone could do this 
was the grace of God. This I had not. Until then 
I went about without faith in the world. I soon fell 
back, in a measure, into my former belief, but not 
without a resolution to examine more fully the na- 
ture of Popery itself, and the practices of its priests. 
It is well said, a drowning man will catch at straws. 
It occurred to me that, perhaps, all the crimes and 
iniquities committed by popes, priests and bishops, 
and sanctioned by the church of Rome, might be 
confined only to the old countries, where '' use 
makes law," and that by leaving the old and com- 
ing to the new world, where the people made their 
own laws, and the human mind had its full swmg, 
and thought is only bounded by its own intermina- 



244 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

T^le exteat, I might find a different state of things. I 
fancied, at any rate, that man might worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience, 
without the interference, let or hindrance, save the 
inherent power and sovereignty of the people. I 
little supposed that a pure and enlightened people^ 
such as Americans boast themselves, would sanction 
such institutions as those in which the young friend 
of whom I have spoken, lost her virtue, her honor 
and her life. But alas ! how sadly have I been dis- 
appointed. 

Europe is not the only portion of the world that 
contains legalized Sodoms. Its people are not the 
only people that support them. Its lawgivers are 
not the only men, nor its lawmakers the only ones, 
that make laws for them and give them charters. 
Its people are not the only people who contribute 
their time, their lands, their moneys, and who take 
almost from the necessaries of life, to support monk 
houses and nunneries, Jesuits and Dominicans. No, 
no. The new world ^ the new people, if I may say 
so, who boast of being the most enlightened people 
on the face of the earth, — these are the people who, 
in proportion to their number, contribute most to the 
support of Popish brothels, modestly called nunne- 
ries. 

But it will be said that the young lady to whom 1 
have alluded, has given no evidence of her being 
virtuous. As far as you tell us, she has made no 
resistance, and it is scarcely possible that one whom 
you have placed upon so high a prominence of virtue, 
could have so suddenly fallen into the depths of vice. 
This is all very plausible, and naturally to be ex- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. S45 

pected from those who know nothing of auriculeur 
confession^ — a Popish institution, one of the most 
ingenious devices ever invented by the great enemy 
of man, for the destruction of the human soul. 

I am personally acquainted with several respecta- 
ble Protestant Americans, both male and female, 
whose ideas of confession in the Romish church 
have often amused me, though not unaccompanied 
with feelings of grief and sorrow, at their unac- 
quaintance with this, what may be called man- 
trap, or rather woman-trap in the Romish church. 

American Protestants suppose that Popish confes- 
sion means little more than that public confession 
of sin, which is made in all Protestant churches, or 
that which we individually make to Almighty God 
in our private chambers. Such may well inquire 
how this apparent sudden fall could have taken 
place. These inquiries will cease when I state that 
the young lady became a convert to Popery, and give 
my readers some idea of what auricular confession 
is, and how it is made. Every Roman Catholic 
believes that priests have power to forgive sins, by 
virtue of which power any crime, however heinous, 
may be remitted. But in order to effect this, the 
sinner must confess to a priest each and every sin, 
whether of thought, word or deed, with all the cir- 
cumstances leading to it, or following from it ; and 
every priest who hears confessions, is allowed to put 
such questions as he pleases to his penitent^ whether 
male or female, and he or she is bound to answer 
"under pain of eternal damnation. 

It is very difficult, I admit, to suppose that the 
daughter of a virtuous mother, and that mother a 



/ 



246 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND • 

Protestant too, brought up in the elegances of life, 
from her birth, breathing in no other atmosphere 
than that of the purest domestic morality, should be 
precipitated, in the short space of a year or two, 
from a state of unsullied virtue and innocence, to the 
veriest depth of crime ; and it is a melancholy reflec- 
tion to suppose a state of society, in which, by any 
combination of human events, the fond mother of a 
virtuous child could be made the instrument of that 
child's ruin. Such an event is scarcely possible in 
the eyes of Protestant Americans, and I feel a pride 
in believing, from my acquaintance with many of 
them, that if American mothers were aware of the 
existence of a society among them, whose object 
was to demoralize their children, shut out from 
them the noonday light of the gospel, and ultimately 
decoy them into the lecherous embraces of Romish 
priests and Jesuits ; they would, to a woman, rise in 
their appropriate strength, and deliver our land from 
those legalized Sodoms called nunneries. 

I will here take the liberty of showing them how 
the young friend to whom I have alluded, was 
debauched. The nunnery to which she was sent, 
as I have heretofore stated, had attached to it a 
fashionable school ; all nunneries have such. The 
nuns who instruct in those schools in Europe, are 
generally advanced in years, descendants from the 
first families, and highly accomplished. Most, if not 
all of them, at an early period of life met with some 
disappointment or other. One perhaps was the 
daughter of some decayed noble family, reduced by 
political revolutions to comparative poverty, and 
now having nothing but the pride nf birth, retired to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 247 

a convent. She could not work, and she wo aid not 
beg. Another, perhaps, was disappointed in love; 
the companion of her own choice was refused to her 
by some unfeeling, aristocratic parent. No alterna- 
tive was left but to unite her young person with the 
remains of some broken-down debauchee of the 
nobility. She prefers going into a convent with 
such means as she had in her own right. An- 
other, perhaps, like my young friend, — and this 
is the case with most of them, — was seduced, by 
some profligate priest while at school, degraded in 
her own eyes, unfitted even in her own mind to 
become the companion of an hono^ble man ; seeing 
no alternative but death or dishonor, she goes into a 
convent. These ladies, when properly disciplined by 
Jesuits and priests, become the best teachers. But 
before they are allowed to teach, there is no art, no 
craft, no species of cunning, no refinement in pri- 
vate personal indulgences, or no modes or means of 
seduction, in which they are not thoroughly initi- 
ated ; and I may say with safety, and from my own 
personal knowledge through the confessional, that 
there is scarcely one of them who has not been 
herself debauched by her confessor. The reader 
will understand that every nun has a confessor; 
and here I may as well add, for the truth must 
be told at once, that every confessor has a concu- 
bine, and there are very few of them who have not 
several. Let any American mother imagine her 
young daughter among these semi-reverend crones, 
called nuns, and she will have no difficulty in seeing 
the possibility of her immediate ruin. 

When your daughter comes among those women, 
11* 



248 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

they pretend to be the happiest set of beings upon 
earth. They would not exchange their situation for 
any other this side of heaven. They will pray. So 
do the devils. They will sing. So will the devils, 
for aught I know. Their language, their acts, their 
gestures, their whole conduct while in presence of 
the scholars, or their visitors, is irreproachable. 

The mother abbess, or superior of the convent, 
who invariably is the deepest in sin of the whole, 
and who, from her age and long practice, is almost 
constitutionally a hypocrite, appears in public the 
most meek^ the most bland, tSe most courteous, and 
the most humble Christian. 

She is peculiarly attentive to those who have 
any money in their own right : she tells them they 
are beautiful, fascinating, that they look like angels, 
that this world is not a fit residence for them, that 
they are too good for it, that they ought to become 
nuns, in order to fit them for a higher and better 
station in heaven. Nothing more is necessary than 
to become a Roman Catholic and go to confession. 
Such is the apparent happiness, cheerfulness, and 
unalloyed beatitudes of the nuns, that strangers 
are pleased with them. They invariably make a 
favorable impression on the minds of their visitors. 
The inference is that they must be truly pious and 
really virtuous. 

I had recently the honor of a conversation with a 
lady, who is herself one of the most accomplished 
and elegant women in the country, and who a few 
weeks previously had paid a visit to the Roman 

Catholic nunnery at , D. C. She spoke of the 

institution in the highest terms of commendation- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. <J49 

was struck with the seeming content and cheerfulness 
of t?ie lady managers, and could scarcely see why it 
was not a good place for the education of young 
ladies; but I will venture the assertion, that had 
this interesting lady known, as I do, the heartless- 
ness with which crime was committed within its 
walls, she would fly from it, as from a den of 
thieves, or a city of plague. A peculiar coldness, a 
heartlessness not to be found elsewhere, nor under 
other circumstances, exists in Jesuit convents, to 

which order that of belongs. Nothing like it 

can be traced out in the records of the world's doings. 
And had I the talent to point it out, — could I fix it 
in a position, so as to stand out solitary and alone in 
its naked deformity, before heaven and before men, — 
instead of meriting the commendation of the accom- 
plished mothers and daughters of our land, they 
would soon be left without support, and crumble to 
dust amid the brutalities which their silent walls 
alone have witnessed, and would proclaim to the 
world, had not the inanimate materials of which 
they are composed forbidden it. 

When crimes are committed in open day, there is 
some palliation for them; but when committed in 
the dark, and in recesses ostensibly dedicated to vir- 
tue, they are marked with an atrocity, which God, 
or man, or woman cannot witness without shudders 
of horror. Such are those committed in Jesuit nun- 
neries, and by those very Jesuit nuns who appear so 
happy, and so chaste, not only in the nunnery in 

, but in every nunnery throughout the world. 

This it will be said, and has often been said, even 
by Christian mothers and Christian daughters, can- 



250 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

not be. They suppose that a sinner can never be 
happy, or even appear so. How little these people 
know of human nature ! How perfectly unac- 
quainted they are with the power of discipline, or 
force of education ! Yet it would seem as if they 
should know better than to conclude hastily, that 
because nuns are cheerful and happy in appearance, 
they must be also chaste and virtuous. Many oi 
our American ladies have been in the East; some of 
them have been in Constantinople. I believe that 
one or two have visited the harem of the Em- 
peror of Constantinople, and might have seen there 
numbers of ladies, accomplished in their own way, 
covered with crime and sin, yet cheerful and ap- 
parently happy. But show me the Christian lady, 
who ever witnessed this, that will not weep at the 
bare mention of the fact, that will not sigh for 
the conversion of the Turk and Mahomedan, who 
will not mourn the fate of her sisters — for sisters 
they are of the same family — thus degraded and 
still content : — all the result of circumstances, educa- 
tion and want of pure religion. 

But these sympathizers with Turks, Mahome- 
flans and Pagans have not a tear to spare for their 
sisters of the United States. Not a sigh escapes 
them for their relief. Not a dollar can they give to 
remove from our land that accursed thing, Popery — 
the primary and sole cause of all those evils. On 
the contrary, if Jesuits want to build a nunnery^ the 
husband has no peace from his wife, the father from 
the daughter, the brother from the sister, the lover 
from his betrothed, until they make up money to 
buiid a nunnery for the poor nuns. Well, indeed 



PuPISH NUNNERIES. 251 

may I apply to such individuals the language of 
the Jesuit Rodin, in the Wandering Jew:— ^^ Fools, 
dolls, double dolts." But Rodin v/as wrong. He was 
entirely premature in the use of these expressions ; 
and I am not at all pleased with his depriving me 
of the opportunity of being first to apply those sweet- 
sounding terms to American Protestants, — a people 
who have done, and are still doing, more to merit 
them, than any other of the past or present age. 

I find, though I have not the merit of intending 
it, that I am strictly performing my promise to my 
readers, viz., that I will go entirely upon my own 
hook, pay no attention to order, style, or to what crit- 
ics may say, but give them my ideas at random of 
things and facts, just as I saw them, and precisely as 
they struck me at the time. This, I must confess, is 
rather a Tristramshandish mode of writing, partic- 
ularly to Americans, who are a most precise, sys- 
tematic and business people ; but it is a free country, 
and, as the poet said, " Cur ego invidior si pauca 
querere possim,^^ &c. 

But to return to the causes which induced me to 
leave the Romish church. 

The young lady of whom I have spoken in a pre- 
vious page, was sent to school, as I have stated, to 
a Popish nunnery. She was a Protestant when she 
entered ; so are many young ladies in this country 
when they enter similar schools. The nuns im- 
mediately set about her conversion. The process by 
which such things are done is sometimes slow, hut 
always sure. It is often tedious, but never fails; 
though the knowledge European Protestants have 
of such institutions, renders the process of conver- 



252 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

sion more tedious than in this land of freedom and 
Popish humbuggery. The work of her conversion 
proceeded with, the usual success, until she finally 
joined the Romish church. The next step, in such 
cases, is to choose a confessor. This is done for the 
young convert by the mother abbess of the nuns ; 
and now commences the ruin of the soul and the 
body of the hitherto guileless, guiltless scholar, and 
convert from Protestant heresy. She goes to con- 
fession ; and recollect, American reader, that what I 
here state is " Muiata fabula de te ipso narratur.^'' 
Every word of what I am about to state is applica- 
ble to you. This confession is, literally speaking, 
nothing but a systematic preparation for her ruin. 
It is said that there is, among the creeping things of 
this earth, a certain noxious and destructive animal, 
called Anaconda. It is recorded of this animal, foul, 
filthy and ugly as he is, that when he is hungry, 
and seizes upon an object which he desires to de- 
stroy and subsequently devour, he takes it with him 
carefully ta his den, or place of retreat. There, at 
his ease, unseen and alone with his prey, he is said 
to cover it over with slime, and then and there 
wallow it. I now declare, most solemnly and sin- 
cerely, that after living twenty-five years in full 
communion with the Roman Catholic church, and 
officiating as a Romish priest, hearing confessions, 
and confessing myself, I know not another repti'e 
in all animal nature so filthy, so much to be shun- 
ned, and loathed, and dreaded by females, both 
married and single, as a Roman Catholic priest, or 
bishop, who practises the degrading and demoraliz- 
mg office of auricular confession. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 253 

Let me give American Protestant mothers just a 
twilight glance at the questions which a Romish 
priest puts to those females, who go to confession to 
him, and they will bear in mind that there is no 
poetry in what I say. It contains no undulations 
of a roving fancy; there is nothing dreaming, no- 
thing imaginative about it; it is only a part of a 
drama in which I have acted myself. I may truly 
say of all that occurs in Popish confession, ^^ Quorum 
magna pars fuV 

The following is as fair a sketch as I can, with 
due regard to decency^ give of the questions which a 
Romish priest puts to a young female, who goes to 
confession to him. It is, however, but a very brief 
synopsis. But first let the reader figure to himself, 
or herself, a young lady, between the age of from 
twelve to twenty, on her knees, with her lips nearly 
close pressed to the cheeks of the priest, who, in all 
probability, is not over twenty-five or thirty years 
old — for here it is worthy of remark, that these 
young priests are extremely zealous in the discharge 
of their sacerdotal duties, especially in hearing con- 
fessions, which all Roman Catholics are bound to 
make under pain of eternal damnation. When priest 
and penitent are placed in the above attitude, let us 
suppose the following conversation taking place be- 
tween them, and unless my readers are more dull of 
apprehension than I am willing to believe, they will 
have some idea of the beauties of Popery. 

Confessor. What sins have you committed ? 

Penitent. I don't know any, sir. 

Con. Are you sure you did nothing wrong ? Ex- 
amine yourself well. 



/ 



254 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Pen. Yes; I do recollect that I did wrong i 
made faces at school at Lucy A. 

Con. Nothing else? 

Pen. Yes ;" I told mother that I hated Lucy A. 
and that she was an ugly thing. 

Co7i. (Scarcely able to suppress a smile in finding 
the girl perfectly innocent.) Have you had any im- 
modest thoughts? 

Pe7i. What is that, sir ? 

Con. Have you not been thinking about men ? 

Pen. Why, yes, sir. 

Con. Are you fond of any of them ? 

Pen. Why, yes ; I like cousin A. or R. greatly. 

Con. Did you ever like to sleep with him 7 

Pen. Oh, no. 

Coji. How long did these thoughts about men 
continue ? 

Pen. Not very long. 

Con. Had you these thoughts by day, or by 
night? 

Pen. By — 

In this strain does this reptile confessor proceed, 
till his now half-gained prey is filled with ideas 
and thoughts, to which she has been hitherto a 
stranger. He tells her that she must come to-mor- 
row again. She accordingly comes, and he gives 
another twist to the screw, which he has now 
firmly fixed upon the soul and body of his penitent. 
Day after day, week after week, and month after 
month does this hapless girl come to confession, 
until this wretch has worked up her passions to a 
tension almost snapping, and then becomes his easy 
prey. T cannot as I before stated, detail the whole 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 257 

process by which a Romish confessor debauches his 
victims in the confessional, but if curiosity, or any 
other motive creates in the public mind a aesire to 
know all the particulars about it, I refer them to An- 
t fine's Moral Theology, which I have read in the col- 
lege of Maynooth, or to Den's treatise, " De Pecca- 
tis,^^ which I have read in the same college, and in 
the same class with some of the Romish priests now 
in this country^ hearing confessions perhaps at the 
moment I write, and debauching their penitents, aye. 
even in New England, the land of the pilgrims ! In 
those books I have mentioned, they will find the ob- 
scene questions which are put by priests and bishops 
of the Romish church, to all women, young and old, 
married or single; and if any married man, or father, 
or brother, will, after the perusal of these question?, 
allow his wife, his daughter, or his sister, ever again 
to go to confession, I will only say that his ideas of 
morality are more vague and loose than those of the 
heathen or the Turk. Christian he should not be called, 
who permits these deeds in our midst, I beg here to 
lay before my readers an extract from a work, recent- 
ly published in Paris, entitled, " Auricular Confession 
and Direction." The work is written by M. Miche- 
let, one of the most distinguished writers in France. 
It has been noticed in the last number of the Foreign 
Quarterly Review, and in that admirably conducted 
press, the Boston Courier. 

The following is given as the mysterious opeijiDg 
of the book : — 

'' The family is in question; 

' That home where we would all fain repose, alter 
Bo many useless efforts, so many illusions destroyed. 



258 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

We return home very wearied — do we find repose 

there 7 

' We must not dissimulate — we must frankly con- 
fess to ourselves the real state of thmgs. There ex- 
ists in the bosom of society — in the family circle — a 
serious dissension, nay, the most serious of all dissen- 
sions. 

' We may talk with our mothers, our wives or our 
daughters, on ail those matters about which we talk 
with our acquaintances : on business, on the news of 
the day, but not at all on matters nearest the heart, 
on religion, on God, on the soul. 

' Take the instant when you would fain find your- 
self united with your family in one common feeling, 
in the repose of the evening, round the family table ; 
ihere, in your home, at your own hearth, venture to 
utter a word on these matters ; your mother sadly 
shakes her head, your wife contradicts you, your 
daughter, although silent, disapproves. They are 
on one side of the table, you on the other, alone. 

' It would seem as if in the midst of them, oppo- 
site to you, sat an invisible man to contradict what 
you say.' 

•' The invisible enemy here spoken of, is the priest. 
The reviewer proceeds — 

' The priest, as confessor, possesses the secret of a 
woman's soul; he knows every half-formed hope, 
every dim desire, every thwarted feehng. The priest, 
as spiritual director, animates that woman with his 
own ideas, moves her with his own will, fashions 
her according to his own fancy. And this priest ^s 
doomed to celibacy. He is a man, but is bound to 
pluck from his heart the feelings of a man. If he is 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 259 

Without faith, he makes desperate use of his power 
over those confiding in liim. II he is sincerely de- 
vout, he has to struggle with his passions, and there 
IS a perilous chance of his being defeated in that 
fctiuggle. And even should he come ofl' victorious, 
still the mischief done is incalculable and irreparable. 
The woman's virtue has been preserved by an acci- 
dent, by a power extraneous to herself She was 
wax in her spiritual director's hands; she has ceased 
to be a ferson^ and is become a thing. ^ 

'- There is something diabolical in the institution of 
celibacy accompanying confession. Paul Louis Cour- 
rier has painted a fearful picture of the priest's posi- 
tion as an unrrtarried confessor; and as Courriers 
works are far less read than they deserve to be, we 
make no scruple of transferring his powerful sen- 
tences to our pages. 

' What a life, what a condition is that of our 
priests 7 Love is forbidden them, marriage espe- 
cially ; women are given up to them. They may not 
have one of their own, and yet live familiarly with 
all, nay, in the confidential, intimate privity of their 
hidden actions, of all their thoughts. An innocent 
girl first hears the priest under her mother's wing; 
he then calls her to him, speaks alone with her, and 
is the first to talk of sin to her, before she can have 
known it. When instructed, she marries; when 
married, he still confesses and governs her. He has 
preceded the husband in her affections, and Vv'ill 
always maintain himself in them. What she would 
not venture to confide to her mother, or confess to 
her husband, he, a priest, must know it, asks it, hears 
It, and 3^et shall not be her lover. How could he, 



^60 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



indeed 7 is he not tonsured 7 He hears whispered in 
his ear, by a young woman, her faults, passions, de- 
sires, weaknesses, receives her sighs without feelmg 
agitated, and he is five-and-twenty ! 

' To confess a woman ! imagine what that is. At 
the end of the church a species of closet or sentry- 
box is erected against the wall, where the priest 
awaits in the evening, after vespers, his young peni- 
tent whom he loves, and who knows it ; love cannot 
be concealed from the beloved person. You will 
stop me there : his character of priest, his education, 
his vow ... I reply that there is no vow which holds 
good, that every village cure just come from the sem- 
inary, healthy, robust, and vigorous, doubtless loves 
one of his parishioners. It cannot be otherwise ; and 
if you contest this, I will say more still, and that is, 
that he loves them all^ those at least of his own age ; 
out he prefers one, who appears to him, if not more 
beautiful than the others, more modest and wiser, 
and whom he would marry ; he would make her a 
virtuous, pious wife, if it were not for the Pope. He 
sees her daily, and meets her at church or elsewhere, 
and sitting opposite her in the winter evenings, he 
imbibes, imprudent man ! the poison of her eyes ! 

' Now, I ask you, when he hears that one coming 
the next day, and approaching the confessional, and 
when he recognizes her footsteps, and can say, ' It is 
she;' what is passing in the mind of the poor con- 
fessor ] Honesty, duty, wise resolutions, are here of 
Uttle use, without peculiarly heavenly grace. I will 
suppose him a saint : unable to fly, he apparently 
groans, sighs, recommends himself to God ; but if he 
is only a man, he shudders, desires, and already un- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 261 

willingly, without knowing it, perhaps, he hopes. 
ShjB arrives, kneels down at his knees, before him 
whose heart leaps and palpitates. You are young, 
sir, or you have been so ; between ourselves, what 
do you think of such a situation? Alone most of 
the time, and having these walls, these vaulted roofs, 
as sole witnesses, they talk; of what? alas! of 
all that is not innocent. They talk, or rather mur- 
mur, in low voice, and their lips approach each 
other, and their breaths mingle. This lasts for an 
hour or more, and is often renewed. 

' Do not think I invent. This scene takes place 
such as I describe it; is renewed daily by forty 
thousand young priests, with as many young girls 
whom they love, because they are men, whom they 
confess in this manner, entirely tete-a-tete^ and visit, 
because they are priests, and whom they do not 
marry, because the Pope is opposed to it.' 

'' The priest has the spiritual care of her he loves ; 
her soul is in his hands. He is connected with her 
by the most sacred ties ; his interest in her he dis- 
guises to himself under the cloak of spiritual anxiety. 
He can always quiet the voice of conscience by an 
equivoque. The mystic language of love is also the 
mystic language of rehgion, and what guilt is shroud- 
ed under this equivoque, the history of priestcraft 
may show. Parler V amour c'est faire V amour, is a 
profound truth. From the love of God, it is easy to 
descend to the love of man; especially when this 
man is a priest, that is to say, a mediator between 
the woman and God, one who says, ' God hears you 
through me ; through me he will reply.' This man 



262 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

whom she has seen at the altar, and there invested 
with all the sacred robes and sacred associations of 
his office ; whom she has visited in the confessional, 
and there laid bare her sonl to him; whose visits she 
has received in her houdoir^ and there submitted to 
his direction ; this man, whom she worships, is sup- 
posed to be an idea, a priest ; no one supposing him 
to be a man, with a man's passions ! 

" M. Michelet's book contains the proofs of what 
I have just said; but they are too numerous to 
quote. I shall only borrow from his work the pas- 
sages he gives from an unexceptionable authority, 
Llorente. 

^ Llorente, a contemporary, relates (t. iii., ch. 28, 
article 2, ed. 1817) that when he was secretary to the 
Inquisition, a capuchin was brought before that tri- 
bunal, who directed a community of beguines^ and 
had seduced nearly all of them, by persuading them 
that they were not leaving the road to perfection. 
He told each of them in the confessional that he had 
received from God a singular favor: ^' Our Lord," he 
said, " has deigned to show himself to me in the Sa- 
crament, and has said to me. Almost all the souls 
that thou dost direct here are pleasing to me, bnt 
especially such a one, (the capuchin named her to 
whom he spoke.') She is already so perfect, that she 
has conquered every passion, except carnal desire, 
which torments her very much. Therefore, wishing 
virtue to have its reward, and that she should serve 
me tranquilly, I charge thee to give her a dispensa- 
tion, but only to be made use of with thee ; she need 
speak of it to no confessor ; that would be useless, as 
with such a dispensation she cannot sin." Out of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 263 

seventeen beguines, of which the community was 
composed, the intrepid capuchin gave the dispensa- 
tion to thirteen, who were discreet for some length of 
time ; one of them, however, fell ill, expected to die, 
and discovered everything, declaring that she had 
never been able to believe in the dispensation, but 
that she had profited by it. 

' I remember,' said Llorente, ' having said to 
him: "But, father, is it not astonishing that this sin- 
gular virtue should have belonged exactly to the 
thirteen young and handsome ones, and not at all to 
the other four, who were ugly or old?" He coolly 
replied, " The Holy Spirit inspires where it listeth." 

^ The same author, in the same chapter, while re- 
proaching the Protestants with having exaggerated 
the corruption of confessors, avows that, "In the 
sixteenth century, the Inquisition had imposed on 
women the obligation of denouncing guilty confess- 
ors, but the denunciations were so numerous, that 
the penitents were declared dispensed from denounc- 
ing." ' 

I should not have laid the above extract before the 
public, were I not well aware that such is the extra- 
ordinary infatuation of Americans on the subject of 
Popery and confession, that they may suspect my 
statements of exaggeration. This alone could induce 
me to give more than my own assertion for the truth 
of my statements, as no writer upon Popery knows 
more, or can relate more of Auricular Confession and 
Direction^ than I can myself, of my own knowledge, 
and from my own personal experience. I shall not, 
however, ask American Protestants to take my naked 
word for anything which I may say on Popery. I 
12 



25 1 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

shall substantiate all I assert by proofs from his- 
tory. 

The title of Christian land should not be given to 
this country, nor to any country, which legalizes 
institutions where deeds of darkness are sanctioned, 
and the foul debauchers of our youth, of our wives 
and our sisters, find a shelter. 

Shall the cowl shelter the adulterous monk in this 
land of freedom 7 Are the sons of freemen required 
to countenance, nay, asked to build impassable walls 
around a licentious, lecherous, profligate horde of 
foreign monks and priests, who choose to come 
among us, and erect little fortifications^ which they 
call nunneries, for their protection ? Shall they own 
by law and by charter places where to bury, hidden 
from the public eye, the victims of their lust, and 
the murdered offspring of their concupiscence? Be- 
ware, Americans ! There are bounds, beyond which 
sUmers cannot go. Bear in mind the fact that the 
same God who can limit the sphere of an individu- 
al's crimes, can also limit those of a nation. You 
have flourished. Take heed lest you begin to decay 
before you come to full maturity; and I regret to 
say, that symptoms of this are now apparent. Al- 
ready can I see the hectic flush of moral consumption 
upon the fair face of America. Already can I see a 
demon bird of ill omen plunging its poisoned beak 
into the very vitals of your national existence, stop- 
ping here, and stopping tliere onl)^ to dip his wings 
in the life streams of your national existence, with 
the sole view of giving its spread more momentunij 
until it encompasses the whole lenatli and breadth. 
centre and circumrerence of \^our country. 

Infidelity is now fast careering and sporting over 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 265 

the whole face of our land, and if history has not 
deceived us, and our own personal experience has 
not been vain, it never moves, it never travels, it 
never exists, unaccompanied by political as well as 
moral death. Look at ancient Rome, how it fell in 
its pride ! Look at France — ^how often it has tottered 
and stumbled in its beauty ! Look at England at 
the present moment, — see how she trembles even in 
her strength. Think you that all these things were 
brought about by the causes to which the world 
would attribute them? What signifies the Texas 
question in the sight of God? What the Oregon 
difficulties? what the trade with China? what the 
repeal brawlings? Such things would have hap- 
pened if our "mother's cat had but kittened, and 
we ourselves had ne'er been born." 

The decay of nations, the fall of thrones, are 
brought about by infidelity, by national insults to 
the God of nations, by the sins of the people against 
the King of glory ; and how can this country, deeply 
steeped as it is, and darkly stained as it is, with the 
crime of aiding Popery, idolatry, and auricular con- 
fession ; how can it expect, I repeat the words, 
that the moral breezes of heaven should breathe 
upon her, and restore to her again that strong 
and healthy constitution, which her ancestors have 
left to her sons ? No, no. It cannot be. You must, 
as the lawyers would say, stand " rectus in curia^^^ 
before your God. Withdraw your countenance and 
your support from Popery. Touch not the unclean 
thing. Then, and not until then, can you raise 
clean hands and pure hearts to the throne of God, 
and ask for a blessing upon the United States and 
its territories. 



266 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

But it may be replied, all you say of Popery in 
the old countries may be true, but it is a difFercnl 
thing altogether in the United States. This is a 
great error on the part of Americans, and I feel it 
my duty to correct it if possible. I am not surprised 
that Americans should entertain ideas of this kind. 
I was once partly of that opinion myself, and, as 1 
stated in a former page, I determined to visit this 
new and free country, in the hope — alas ! it was a 
vain one — of finding true religion, and purity of life, 
even in the Roman Catholic church. I remember 
well, having consulted a friend on the propriety of 
such a course, he strongly dissuaded me from it, 
assuring me that I would find Popery here essen- 
tially the same that it was in Europe, with this 
difference only, that the crimes and private lives 
of priests and bishops were more grossly immoral, 
and, though indirectly, more effectually sanctioned 
by the laws of the land. This, however, did not 
satisfy me, and accordingly, having received from 
my then ecclesiastical superior, what in church 
parlance is called an Exeat^ (the document is in my 
possession, if any one wishes to see it,) or, as Ameri- 
can theologians would term it, "a regular dismis- 
sion" from the church where I officiated, 1 arrived 
in New York, in Nov., 18— — . But the reader may 
well judge of my disappointment, when L found, on 
my arrival there, not altogether such Romish priests 
and bishops as I had left behind me, — for many of 
tliem were gentlemen by birth, and paid some 
regard to public decency, even in their profligacies; 
but a set of coarse, vulgar, half educated', I may 
say, half civilized, Irish and French brutes, most o^ 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 267 

!vhom might be seen daily lolling in grog-shops, 
and electioneering among the lowest dregs of society. 
1 have met but one exception to this, and that was 
the Reverend Wm. Taylor, who was then in New 
York. 

Having stated to Taylor my object in coming 
over, I shall never forget the sad and sorrowful 
smile which but dimly lit up his naturally kind and 
cheerful countenance. ''My friend," said he, "all 
your hopes in coming to this country will be disap- 
pointed. You must not stay in this city. Go into 
the country. Go to Albany ; you may there see less 
of those scenes from which you have fled ; and as I 
perceive your introductions from Europe to De Witt 
Clinton, are numerous and of the best kind, you 
will find much pleasure in the society of that excel- 
lent gentleman, and make up your mind either to 
leave this country, or to retire from the Romish 
church altogether. The latter I will do myself, but 
not without an effort to correct the abuses of Popery." 
This effort he has made, as I have stated in my 
Synopsis of Pope7y, as it was and as it is ; but he 
In eked moral as well as physical courage to carry it 
through. 

I lost no time in retiring to Albany. The legisla- 
ture of the State of New York was then commenc- 
ing its annual session, and though an entire stranger, 
so high were my testimonials, both from the Ro- 
mish bishops, as a priest, and from private indi- 
viduals, as a man of honor and correct deportment, 
that I was unanimously elected chaplain to the 
legislature, without any application on my part for 
such an appointment. I will not allude to the 



'■■^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

flattering attentions which were paid to me by the 
people of Albany, during my residence among them, 
which was only about six months. The public 
presses in that city, while I was there, bear witness 
to the fact. Even the Roman Catholics, some of 
whom were native Americans, left nothing undone 
to render me happy. My salary was more than I 
desired, and more than I wanted of them. As a 
body, I have no complaint to make against them, 
so far as money was concerned. Why then, it will 
be said, did you leave them ? This too is a sad tale. 
But, as some of them are now living, justice even to 
them demands that I should state the cause which 
forced me to leave them. 

The Roman Catholics of Albany had, during 
about two years previous to my arrival among 
them, three Irish priests alternately with them, 
occasionally preaching, but always hearing confes- 
sions. I know the names of these men ; one of them 
is dead, the other two living, and now in full com- 
munion in the Roman church, still saying mass and 
hearing confessions. As soon as I got settled in 
Albany, I had of course to attend to the dut}^ of 
luricidar confession, and in less than two months 
found that those three priests, during the time they 
were there, were the fathers of between sixty and 
one hundred children, besides having debauched 
many who had left the place previous to their con- 
finement. Many of these children were by mar- 
ried women, who were among the most zealous 
supporters of those vagabond priests, and whose 
brothers and relatives were ready to wade, if neces- 
sary, knee deep in blood for the holy, immaculate^ 



POPISH NUNNEKIES. COO 

infallible church of Rome. There is a circuin- 
stance connected with this, that renders the conduct 
of these priests ahnost frightfully atrocious. There 
are in many of the Roman Catholic churches, things, 
as Michelet properly calls them, like sentry-boxes, 
called confessionals. These are generally situ- 
ated in the body of the church, and priests hear 
confessions in them, though the priest and lady 
penitent are only separated by a sliding board, 
which can be moved in any direction the confessor 
pleases, leaving him and the penitent ear to ear, 
breath to breath, eye to eye, and lip to lip, if he 
pleases. There were none of these in the Romish 
church of Albany, and those priests had to hear 
confessions in the sacristy of the church. This is a 
small room back of the altar, in which the Eucha- 
rist, containmg, accordmg to the Romish belief, the 
real bady and blood of Jesus Christ, is kept, wliiie 
mass is not celebrating in the chapel. This room is 
always fastened by a lock and key of the best work- 
manship, and the key kept by the priest day and 
night. This sacristy, containing the wafer, which 
the priests blasphemously adore, was used by them 
as a place to hear confessions, and here they com- 
mitted habitually those acts of immorality and 
crime of which I have spoken. 

These details must be unpleasant to the reader ; 
but not more so than they are to me. I see not, 
however, any other mode in which I can give 
Americans anything like a correct idea of that state 
of society which must be expected in this country, 
should the period ever arrive when Popery and 
Popish priests shall be in the ascendant. There are 



270 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

portions of Europe, and of South America, where 
parents well know that the children, who take their 
name, whom they are obliged to support, are only 
their legalized, but not their legitimate offspring ; but 
so entirely brutalized are their feelings and notions 
of morality by the predominance of Popery among 
them, that these things are considered matters of 
little moment. I saw an instance of this very 
recently at a place called Hallappa, in Mexico. I 
met there a gentleman, a man of wealth, some dis« 
tinction, and one who had travelled a good deal. 
Knowing that I intended leaving the place next day, 
he said he would introduce me to two Dominican 
friars, who were going to Yera Cruz, and were to 
travel in the same stage with me. In the course of 
conversation I observed to him, that the reputation 
of Dominican friars and Jesuits for morality, was 
not good in some parts of Europe which I had 
visited, and I wished very much to know how it 
stood in Mexico. He frankly replied, in very good 
Latin, — a language more familiar to me than the 
Spanish, or perhaps any other, — '' they are not con- 
sidered as a body very moral men in Mexico, but 
these reverend gentlemen to whom I will introduce 
you, bear a high character for morality. They do 
not trouble their neighbors' wives and daughters; 
they have for years kept their female friends, and pro- 
vided for their children." "Are they married, sir?" 
said I : though I of course knew the reverse from the 
fact of their being priests. "Oh no, sir," replied my 
Mexican acquaintance; "our holy church does not 
allow that, but they are chaste men." " What do you 
mean by chastity?" said I. " Living an tmmaiTied 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 271 

/r/gj" answered he promptly. In the course of that 
evening, I met with a respectable American citizen, a 
native of New Jersey ; I asked him whether he knew 
these priests, naming them. He told me he did ; that 
one of them kept three sisters, the eldest not over 
twenty-five years old, and that he had children by 
each of them^ but was still reputed a good priest, 
and was, as far as he could discover, one of the best 
of them. The next day I obtained an introduction 
to these worthies, and travelled with them to Yera 
Cruz. They were dressed in their appropriate garb 
of sanctity, the crown of their heads being shaved 
close, and bearing marks of sanctimoniousness. It 
is well known that in the city of Mexico, and 
throughout that sham republic, Romish priests live 
habitually and publicly with the mother and daugh- 
ter at the same time. 

These are the mxcn, and their code of moral 
law is that which Americans are fostering and en- 
couraging, by contributing their money to the build- 
ing of convents and Romish chapels throughout the 
United States. 

Previous to my leaving Albany, many overtures 
were made to me by Roman Catholics to continue 
among them ; but I peremptorily declined. The 
reader may well imagine the awkwardness of my 
position, and state of my feelings on this occasion. 
I could give the people no reason for my leaving 
them ; my lips were sealed, my hands were bound, 
my voice was silent. I saw many worthy families 
on the brink of ruin, and I could not put forth a 
hand to save them. I saw their children almost in 
the jaws of the lion, but I dared not warn them of 
12* 



272 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

their danger. I saw their foes, in the garb of friends 
and m^ral guides, leading them into the recesses of 
guilt and crime, and I dared not utter a warning 
cry. I knew all in the confessional^ and of course 1 
was silent. The only resource left me was to leave 
these scenes, where the occurrences which I have 
stated had taken place ; and I accordingly decided 
to make another trial of Popery, by proceeding on 
to Philadelphia, a city which, at that time, was pre- 
eminently distinguished for the virtues and morality 
of its people. 

I expected that in a community so remarkably 
distinguished for the observance of all law, human 
and divine, as the city of Penn was, that even 
Papist priests and Jesuits might, at least, observe 
the externals of correct deportment ; and, full of bet- 
ter hopes and brighter prospects, I hastened among 
them, and was received with a cordiality and hospi- 
tality truly flattering. Fortunately for this people, 
they had no bishop for some time previous to my 
arrival. The diocese was under the superintend- 
ence of a Yicar- general, a Jesuit, I think from 
Switzerland, named De Barth. This reverend gen- 
tleman had been settled in the interior of the State ; 
and having there a hovsekeeper and some nieces, to 
whom he was attached^ he visited the city of Phila- 
delphia but seldom ; owing to this circumstance, and 
to the fact that three or four friars and one Irish 
curate, who was in the city, had their own way in 
everything, the Popish congregation was compar- 
atively quiet. American Protestants knew nothing 
of their private lives, knew nothing of the plans and 
schemes which they were laying to entrap their chil- 



POPISH NUN.VEKIES. 2^0 

f '^v. i id, by suppressing the reading of the Bible, 
; S'-^'iiaiate amongst them the seeds of moral death. 
H.'ie, at least, I expected to find Popery as I fancied 
it before I was ordained a priest. Notwithstanding 
what I had witnessed immediately after my ordina- 
tion in Europe; and though the death-knell, which 
announced the departure to the grave of a young and 
virtuous friend, had scarcely ceased to reverberate in 
my ears ; though the knowledge that a human soul 
was launched into eternity by Jesuit lust and poison, 
and that within the walls of a nunnery, was yet 
fresh in my mind ; though all that occurred in Al- 
bany, under my own eye, and witnessed by the tes- 
timony of my own senses, the one twentieth of 
which I have not even alluded to ; I still expected 
that I might find Popery what my early education 
represented to me, or, at least, that I might contri- 
bute to render it so, in this free country, by casting 
to the winds the legends and silly traditions of the 
Romish holy fathers, and substituting in their place 
the Word of God. 

I little thought that there lived a Romish priest or 
bishop, who, in a land of free thought and noble 
deeds, such as this was then, would dare prohibit the 
circulation of the Word of God. I little dreamed 
that the first opposition I should meet in my efforts 
to circulate the Bible should be in Philadelphia. 
Who could even fancy that Papists were so devoid 
of prudence, or so utterly reckless ?£ consequences, 
as to proclaim, in the city of Penn, we will have no 
Bible ? Though I knew well that Popery boasts of 
being always the same, that it never changes, 1 
also knew that the infallible church always yielded 



274 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

to expediency ; and I thought, as a matter of course, 
that Americans were too courageous, and too virtu- 
ous a people, to permit Papists to proceed so far, at 
that early period of American history, as to close up 
the fountain and the source even of their political 
existence as a nation, and consequently that I should 
meet v/ith no opposition from Papists in any effort 
which might bear upon the face of it any evidence of 
my mtention to advance the cause of morals. But I 
was mistaken. Americans were not then free. They 
are not free now. They had, it is true, shaken off 
the yoke of foreign dominion, but even then they 
were tamely harnessing themselves in stronger chains 
to a heavier yoke; even then they were passively 
submitting to the dictation of Rome, and to the inso- 
lent bravado of Irish priests and bishops. I repeat 
it ; they were not free then. They made their coun- 
try free, as we are told by history, but it was not for 
themselves they made it free. It was done for for- 
eigners ; it was done for Papists, for Jesuits, for Do- 
minicans, and their courtesans, Popish nuns. The 
day is not far distant, — I may not live to see it, nor 
do I desire to witness it, — when some historian may 
wel. apply to Americans that sentence in Virgil, which 
that beautiful pastoral poet applied to the yoked oxen : 
" Sic vos lion vob'is jvjum feratis boves.^^ Well in- 
deed may this be applied to Americans ; they have 
borne the yoke, they have toiled with it upon their 
necks in cultivating their fair fields of freedom, but, 
like the poet's oxen, the crop is not theirs. It be- 
longs to foreign Papists and their lord^ the Pope, 
King of Rome. Nor should I be in the least sur- 
prised, if, in less than thirty years, that thing called 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 275 

the Host, made of Jlou?^ and water, and convertod, by 
the mumbling of a few Latin words by a priest, into 
the God of glory, should be conveyed through that 
city, under a canopy of satin, supported by Popish 
priests, and guarded by a file of Popish dragoons, 
preceded by a trumpeter, announcing its approach, 
in order that the populace may uncover their heads, 
and fall upon their knees to adore this god of Popish 
manufacture. Base idolatry ! And history will say 
of Protestant Americans, — Base people, to tolerate 
such profanations among you ! 

But, on reflection, why blame Americans? They 
knew little or nothing of Popery, except from his- 
tory, and, in some histories, the picture given had 
two sides to it. One was fair and seductive; the 
other was stern and true. The former was exhibited 
with industry and care. It was sought for and 
gazed at with pleasure. The latter had comparative- 
ly but few worldly attractions, had no admirers but 
the votaries of truth, and, alas ! they were but few. 
Under these circumstances, how were Americans to 
be blamed ? Kriowmg them well, I cannot become 
their accuser, but I can, without any disrespect to- 
wards them, pity them, and mourn over the delusion 
under which they labor, even though that delusion 
should be in part well earned. 

How, for instance, could it be expected that Amer- 
ican Protestants should believe what is related of the 
capuchin friar by Michelet, whom I have quoted in 
one of the preceding pages ? Can an American Pro- 
testant suppose it possible that a Romish priest could 
persuade all the nuns in a convent that lie had a 
revelation from God, commissioning hirn^ especially, 



276 AURICULAE CONFESSION AND 

to tell those nuns individually, that it was their duty 
to have a criminal connexion with himself, under 
pain of eternal damnation? Such a thing would 
only excite the risible faculties of an American Pro- 
testant; even the male portion of Roman Catholics 
will not believe such a thing possible. There was a 
period when I would not believe it myself, and when 
the idea of a Popish priest seducing a nun, or admin- 
istering poison to get possession of a man's wife, or 
his daughter, or his property, was impossible, though 
history informed me of such things being done in the 
Romish church; and, had I not become a Roman 
Catholic priest, and been myself a confessor, I 
should, until this day, turn a deaf ear to the rela- 
tion of such facts. I should look upon Popish priests 
and bishops, who were charged with them, as perse- 
cuted men, and probably extend to them that sym- 
pathy and support, which Protestant Americans are 
now doing throughout this country. 

Were any one to come to me before I was a Ro- 
mish priest and confessor, and tell me that the Pro- 
testant young lady to whom I have so often alluded, 
should go to a school kept by Popish nuns, — that 
they would convert her from the religion of her birth, 
make her a Papist, cause her to go to confession, — that 
the confessor would seduce her, and that the superior 
mother abbess would cause her death in trying to pro- 
cure abortion, — I would not have believed him. 1 
should have looked upon him as some fanatic, or some 
evil-disposed person, actuated by malice against Ro- 
mish priests and nunneries; but after becoming a 
priest myself, and a confessor, I not only believed such 
a thing possible, but witnessed it. And though I 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 277 

could weep, I could not prevent it, such was the na- 
ture of my sacerdotal oath of secresy ; such were my 
obligations to support the Pope and the honor of his 
infallible church. 

Poisoning is a practice of ancient date in the Ro- 
mish church ; and I tell you, Americans, it is still in 
full force, and you will taste of its fruits before you 
are aware of it. Let me give you a well authenti- 
cated instance of this. It is related in the fifth vol- 
ume of Sanuto, an eminent Popish writer. Pope 
Alexander the Sixth, graciously condescended to 
inform one of his cardinals, Adrian de Corneto, that 
he intended to visit him at his vineyard, and that 
he, the Pope, would bring his supper with him. The 
cardinal, being himself a priest and a confessor, sus- 
pected that the holy Pope intended to poison him, 
with a view of possessing his fortunes and a lovely 
sister of his. The cardinal's fortune was great, and 
the lady in question was beautiful. He well knew 
his fate, unless something could be done to avert it, 
and he knew of but one way of doing that. He sent 
for the Pope's carver, and prevailed upon him to ac- 
cept aud keep, "for his sake," ten thousand ducats, 
with large sums beside, which he had not then in 
cash, but which he would have in a short time. 
'' You know," said the cardinal to the carver, " that 
the Pope has compassed my death by poison at your 
hand, wherefore, I beseech you, have pity on me, 
and spare my life." The carver, yielding to com- 
passion, promised to save him, and explained the 
mode in which the holy Pope^ the vicegerent ot the 
Lord of Heaven, and, as some Catholics will have 



278 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

it, not only the infallible, but even the impeccable 
head of the church, intended to put him to death. 

The carver was instructed by the Pope, " to have 
two boxes of lozenge confectionary prepared, and to 
present one to himself and the other to the cardi- 
nal. That to the cardinal was to contain poison. 
His holiness^ the Pope, according to engagemeni, 
came to sup with the cardinal at his vineyard, but 
matters being arranged between the carver and 
the latter, the poison which the Pope intended for 
the cardinal was given to himself; he was taken 
sick and died. This occurrence, which took place 
centuries ago, though it may appear incredible to 
many readers of this book, is as well authenticated 
by history, and is as demonstrable therefrom, as it 
will be in some future generation, that such a city as 
Boston, where this book is written, had ever an ex- 
istence. But it will be said, that such things might 
have existed in ancient times ; that popes might 
have poisoned cardinals ; that cardinals might have 
poisoned popes, and that popes might have poisoned 
each other; that priests might have seduced their 
'penitents^ and then caused them to be poisoned, to 
save the honor of the holy church ; but that no such 
thing has ever occurred in these United States. Fa- 
tal delusion, this; and thrice fatal will its conse- 
quences be to you, American Protestants, as well as 
American Catholics, if you do not give ear to my 
statements, and full credit to my word and warning, 
when I tell you that such an event has taken place 
in the city of Philadelphia, to my own personal 
knowledge ; and that the reverend wretch, who se- 
duced, and subsequentlv caused to be poisoried, an 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 279 

innocent and virtuous orphan daughter of a worthy 
American citizen, was a few months ago, and is 
now, for aught I know, officiating as a Romish 
priest and confessor in the city of Dubhn, Ireland. 

No wonder, I repeat it, that American Protes- 
tants should not believe these things. No wonder 
that Americans who have joined the Popish church, 
should not believe them. No wonder that some 
honorable and high-minded young men in the United 
States, who have been decoyed by the sophistry, 
apparent sanctity and Uheral'Uy of Romish priests, 
from the faith of their Protestant forefathers, should 
disbelieve those things, and feel indignant against 
all who advance such accusations. But let them 
pause. Let them not be too precipitate in judging 
of the motives of others. Some of these young men, 
like myself, in the days of my youth, may take it 
into their heads to become Romish priests, and, I 
understand that, even now, there are several of 
them in Rome preparing to do so. Let them pro- 
ceed. They will soon find, as I did, that such facts 
as I here relate, horrible and revolting as they seem, 
are matters of daily, occurrence in the Church of 
Rome. 

During every vicissitude in the history of the 
Popish church ; during every fluctuation, and every 
rise and fall of successive popes ; during all the meta- 
morphoses and changes that took place in their 
lives, and successive pretensions to power, their 
iniquitous practices were never abandoned. Let 
us raise the veil which hides the past from our 
eye; we shall find, if we do not permit ourselves 
to be misled by faithless historians, that the only 



280 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

thing in which they never differed, was the sanc- 
tioning of the crimes of plunder and rapacity foi 
tlie aggrandizement of the power of Rome, and thai 
murder, rape, and even incest, lost their atrocity 
when committed by priests and bishops of the infal- 
lible chiirch^ who are her sworn and devoted sup- 
porters. 

The power of the popes has often been shaken, 
yet they have stood every shock. Their system of 
policy is such, that they have kept and are keeping 
the nations of the earth engaged in some civil or 
ecclesiastical broils among each other, and thus 
divert their attention from the stealthy march of 
Papal power amongst them ; and while nations are 
thus engaged, they are enveloping the people in 
Ignorance and darkness, so as to blind them to their 
own atrocities and crimes. 

This country is now a fair field for Popish manoeu- 
vring. Rome has seen this for the last twenty 
years, and has made her preparations accordingly. 
While this new country was busy in forming her 
alliances abroad, regulating her commerce, and mak- 
ing her treaties with foreign powers ; while she was 
dividing her states, settling her domestic territorial 
disputes, regulating their laws, and defining their 
boundaries; Rome was awake, — her spies were 
amongst you. They walked carefully round tlie 
citadel of your freedom ; they saw that it was not 
sufficiently manned, that it was accessible from 
many points, and accordingly, they poured into it 
platoon after platoon, regiment after regiment, of the 
Pope's troops, until they had sufficient force to take 
possession whenever they deemed^ it necessary 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 281 

and they now tell Americans that the Pope is their 
legitimate sovereign, and that Americans are but the 
"cowardly sons of cowardly pirates." They even 
go further; they perpe^^rate the grossest outrages 
upon every law, moral and civil, in utter defiance 
of American jurisprudence. They keep their nvn" 
neries, or rather seraglios, in the very midst of them^ 
surround them with ramparts, and not only deny 
to their civil magistrates the right of entrance, but 
defy them to do so. This every American citizen 
knows to be a fact ; at least, it is known in the city 
of Boston, where I now write. No one was admitted 
within the walls of the Ursuline convent, which an 
indignant populace reduced to ashes, without spe- 
cial permission from the mother abbess, — allowing 
the nuns within to assume the appearance of de- 
cency and propriety before they showed themselves^ 
however flagrant their conduct might have been. 
Time was given to them and to the priests to assume 
their usual sanctimoni-appearance ; but then all the 
cells were never seen at the same time. (^Many were 
reserved for hidden and criminal purposes, and when 
some of those nuns were apparently cheerful and 
happy, leaving on the visitor's mind an impression 
that nothing but happiness reigned throughout the 
whole nunnery, there were probably some of them, 
unseen and unheard by strangers, writhing in the 
agonies of childbirth.^ This is no fancy sketch. Read 
Llorenti's History of the Inquisition, and you will 
find that the picture I give is far short of the reality. 
Such was the profligacy of friars and nuns, as 
Llorenti informs us, in the fifteenth century, that the 
Pope, from very shame, had to take notice of it. He 



282 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

had to invest the inquisition with special power to 
take cognizance of the matter. The inquisitors, 
m obedience to orders from their sovereign Pope, 
entered immediately upon the discharge of their 
duties. They issued, through their immediate supe- 
rior, a general order, commanding all women, nuns 
and lay sisters, married women and single women, 
without regard to age, station in life, or any other 
circumstance, to appear before them and give infor- 
mation, if any they had, against all priests, Jesuits, 
monks, friars and confessors. 

The Pope was not fully aware of what he did, 
when he granted the aforesaid power to the inquisi- 
tion. He supposed that the licentiousness of his 
priests did not extend beyond women of ill fame ; but 
in this his holiness was mistaken, as he subsequently 
discovered. All were obliged to obey the summons 
of the inquisition. Disobedience was heresy — it was 
death. The number who made their appearance, to 
lodge information against the priests and confessors, 
in the single city of Seville, in Spain, was so great 
that the taking of depositions occupied twenty nota- 
ries for thirty days. The inquisitors, worn out with 
fatigue, determined on taking a recess, and having 
done so, they reassembled and devoted thirty days 
more to the same purpose ; but the depositions con- 
tinued to increase so fast, that they saw no use in 
continuing them, and they finally resolved to adjourn 
and quash the inquiry. The city of Seville was found 
to be one vast area of pollution. But Americans 
will still say, this occurred in the fifteenth century ; 
no such thing can take place now. The whole 
social system is different now from what it was 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 283 

tbon. 1 tell you again, Americans, that you are 
mistaken in your mference. Priests, nuns and con- 
lessors are the same now that they were then, all 
over the world. Many of you have visited Paris, 
and do you not there see, at the present day, a lying- 
in hospital attached to every nunnery in the city ? 
The same is to be seen in Madrid, and the principal 
cities of Spain. I have seen them myself in Mexico, 
and in the city of Dublin, Ireland. And what is 
the object of those hospitals ? It is chiefly to provide 
for the illicit ofl"spring of priests and nuns, and such 
other unmarried females as the priests can seduce 
through the confessional. But it will be said, there 
are no lying-in hospitals attached to nunneries in 
this country. True, there are not; but I say, of 
my own knowledge and from my own experience 
through the confessional, that it would be well if 
there were; there would be fewer abortions, there 
would be fewer infants strangled and murdered. It 
is not generally known to Americans, that the crime 
of procuring abortion, — a crime which our laws pro- 
nounce to be felony, — is a common every-day crime 
in Popish nunneries. (^It is not known to Ameri- 
cans, — but let it henceforward be known to them, — 
that strangling and putting to death infants, is com- 
mon in nunneries throughout this country. It is 
not known that this is done systematically and me- 
thodically, according to Popish instructions. 3 The 
niodns operandi is this. The infallible church 
teaches that without baptism even infants cannot 
go to heaven. The holy church, not caring much 
now the aforesaid infants may come into this world, 
but anxious that they should go from it according 



2S4 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

to the ritual of the church, insists that the infant 
shall be ^baptized. * This being done, and its soul 
being thus fitted for heaven, the mother abbess gen- 
tly takes between her holy fingers the nostrils of the 
infant, and in the name of the infallible church 
consigns it to the care of the Almighty: )and 1 beg 
here to state, from my own knowledge through the 
confessional, that the father is, in nearly all cases, the 
individual who baptizes it; thus literally verifying 
what Erasmus has said in sheer irony, — ^'■Paires 
vacaniur ei Sepe svnt.'^ I desire to assert nothing, 
of a character so frightful and disgusting as this, on 
my own unsupported authority. I could give num- 
berless instances of the truth of my assertions, but 
let one suffice. 

Llorenti, in his History of the Inquisition, — and 
the reader will bear in mind, that Llorenti is good 
authority with all Roman Catholics, — relates the fol- 
lowing fact. There was among the Carmelite nuns 
of Lerma, a mother abbess, called mother Agneda. 
( Vll the nunneries in the United States have a 
mother abbess, like the nuns of Lerma.) Agueda 
was accounted a saint. People came to her, from 
ail the neighboring country, to be cured of their 
respective diseases. Her mode of curing all diseases 
was this. She had in her possession a number of 
small stones, of which she said she was delivered, 
in all the pains of childbirth. She was delivered 
of them periodically, for the space of twenty years, 
according to her own statement and that of her 
biographer, and by the application of those stones 
to any diseased person, he was forthwith cured. 
Rumor, however, got abroad that the moilmr abbess 



^^ 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 287 

"was no better than she ought to be," and that, 
in place of bringing forth stones, she and the other 
nuns of the convent were bringing forth children 
for the friars of the Carmelite order, who arranged 
all her miracles for her, and enabled her for twenty- 
years to impose upon the public, as the lady prioress 
of a nunnery and fashionable boarding-school. When- 
ever she was confined and delivered of a child, the holy 
7iz/?i5 strangled it and buried it. All the other nuns 
did likewise, and probably would have continued 
to do so to this day, through their successors in 
office, had not a niece of the mother abbess and 
saint^ in a moment of anger, arising from maltreat- 
ment, let fall some observations which excited the 
suspicions of. the public authorities. The burying- 
ground of the nuns was examined, the spot where 
the strangled infants were buried was pointed out 
by the niece of the mother abbess, and the bodies 
found. 

This fact is as well authenticated, as that such a 
place as Lerma has had existence, or that such a 
wretch as Mother Agueda has ever been born ; and I 
will hazard the assertion, that if the burying- grounds 
of the nunneries in the United States were dug open, 
hundreds of the bodies of strangled infants, the off- 
spring of nuns and Popish priests, may be found in 
them, though it is said they have discovered some 
chemical process, by which the bones, as well as the 
flesh of infants, are reduced, in a little time, almost 
to perfect annihilation. 

Virtuous ladies, into whose hands this book by 
chance may fall, will exclaim, on reading the above, 
This cannot be true. I will not believe it. Such a 
13 



288 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

thing is impossible. If even nuns had witnessed 
such things, however depraved they may be, they 
would fly from such scenes ; or at all events, no nun, 
who has ever been once guilty of such crimes, would 
commit them a second time. — Here, again, we see 
how little Americans know of Popery, and of the 
practices of its priests and nuns. 

The fact is, Roman Catholic laymen know almost 
as little of Popery as Protestants. They are not 
aware, that, when a female goes to confession, she 
virtually binds herself to answer every question 
which her confessor proposes, and that the conceal- 
ip.ent of any thought or deed, Avhich she committed, 
was a mortal sin, sufficient of itself to consign her 
soul to hell. I She believes that the priest sits in the 
confessional, not as man, but as God. Attend, fel- 
low-citizens, to what I here state to you, and you 
will easily conceive the possibility, nay, even the 
probability, nay, even further, the truth of every 
word I relate to you in relation to the crimes of nuns 
and priests, within the walls of nunneries. 

The woman who goes to confession to a priest, 
wneiner a nun or a lay-sister, whether married or 
single, believes, that while in the sacred tribunal of 
the confessional, he is divested of his humanit^^, and 
acts, not as man, but as God.y Nothing, then, is 
easier, if he has the least fancy for the penitent, than 
to persuade her that he is divinely commissioned 

to . She does not doubt this, and yields to his 

wishes. - There have been instances, — and there are 
now thousands of them in Europe, and even in this 
country, — where a priest tells every good-looking 
woman who goes to confession to him, that it is her 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 289 

duly to have children by him! Be not startled, 
American husbands. I make not these statements 
to hurt or outrage your feelings. I make it in com- 
passion for you, and to prevent you, if possible, 
from permitting your wives or your daughters to go 
in future to these dens of vice, called confessionals. 

I can easily fancy one of you saying to your neigh- 
bor, who is also a Roman Catholic, and whose wife, 
as well as yours, goes to confession, — " Well, Mr. A., 
I care not what may be said against our priest, or 
against auricular confession. My wife goes regu- 
larly to confession, and if she heard or saw anything 
bad on the part of the priests, / should soon know it. 
I have no doubt of it, says Mr. B. My wife goes 
also, and so does my daughter, and / suppose no- 
body will pretend to say that a priest could do any- 
thing wrong to them.. They know better than to be 
imposed upon. There is no better woman in the 
world than my wife ; come over and dine with me. 
My wife just told me that she asked the priest to 
dine with us, and you must come." I can not only 
fancy this, but I have seen such meetings. I have 
seen husbands unsuspiciously and hospitably enter- 
taining the very priest who seduced their wives in 
the confessional, and was the parent of some of the 
children who sat at the same table with them, each 
of the wives unconscious of the other's guilt, and the 
husbands of both, not even suspecting them, f The 
husband of her who goes to confession has no hold 
upon her affections. If he claims a right to her con- 
fidence, he claims what he can never receive; he 
claims what she has not to give. She has long since 
given it to her confessor, and he can never recover 



290 AURICULAR CONFESSION ANl) 

it. She looks to her confessor for advice in every- 
thhig. She may appear to be fond of her husband ; 
it is even possible that she may be so in reality. 
She may be gentle, meek, and obedient to her hus- 
band, — her confessor will advise her to be so ; but 
she will not give him her confidence ; she cannot, — 
that is already in the hands of her confessor. He 
stands an incarnate fiend between man and wife, 
mother and daughter. All the ties of domestic hap- 
piness and reciprocal duties are thus violated with 
impunity through the instrumentality of auricular 
confession. 

Would to God I had never entered that tribunal 
myself! Would to God it was never in my power to 
relate as facts what I have now put to paper ! But no 
such happiness was intended for me ! It was the 
will of Providence that I was reserved to witness 
and relate those deeds of darkness and crime com- 
mitted under the mask of Popish religion, from 
which my feelings and disposition shrink with hor- 
ror. Voltaire, Rousseau, Raynal, Price, Priestley, 
Paine, Diderot, and others, have done evil by their 
infidel writings. Evils, great and heavy evils, have 
been the consequence of their introduction into the 
United States ; but ten-fold greater have been the 
evils which the introduction of Popery and auricular 
confession amongst us have brought in their train. 

The writings of these infidels have in them, it is 
true, many of the most exceptionable passages, but, 
as far as we know, their private lives were generally 
good. Even in their writings, there was much that 
was good. They advocated the cause of civil liber- 
ty; they pleaded, and pleaded strongly and elo- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 291 

qilftntly, the cause of human rights, and the Hberties 
of man. These were redeeming quaUties. These 
were noble doctrines, and nobly pleaded. But what 
has Popery brought amongst us 7 What have Po- 
pish priests introduced into this country 7 Idolatry, 
debauchery in every shape, and of every hue. Yet 
Americans will cast into the fire the works of those 
infidels, — they will not allow their children to read 
them, lest they may corrupt their morals, though the 
authors are cold in their graves. But they will send 
them to Popish schools, — they will allow them to 
drink lessons of depravity from the eyes of licentious 
nuns, and hear them from the lips of Popish priests. 
Strange inconsistency, this ! Infidels in theory are 
shunned as plagues, while practical infidels are cher- 
ished amongst us. It is well known to Protestants 
even in the United States, that it is a common prac- 
tice of Romish priests to seduce females in the con- 
fessional^ and it is, or should be equally well known 
that these very priests hear the confessions of the 
very females whom they seduce. It is an article of 
faith in the Roman Catholic church, that the crimes 
of a priest do not disqualify him imm. forgiving the 
si?is of his penitent, and hence it is that their oppor- 
tunities of demoralizing every community, where 
they are in the ascendant, almost exceed conception. 
Persuade a woman that if she sins, you can forgive 
her as thoroughly and effectually as Almighty God 
could forgive her, and you take away every check 
from vice. All restraint is removed. The voice of 
true religion is silenced, and sin prevails. 

The iniquity of Romish priests in the confessional 
can scarcely be imagined. There is nothing else 



292 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

like it; it is a thing by itself; there is a chasm be- 
tween itself and other crimes, which human deprav- 
ity cannot pass. Could I state them all, as I have 
known them, my readers would feel themselves al- 
most insulated ; an ocean and a sea of wonders, and 
waters of grief and sadness for fallen humanity 
would ebb and flow around them. Just fancy an 
innocent female on her knees before an artful, unbe- 
lieving priest! But why is she there? Why does 
not instinct warn her oSI Why does not conscious 
innocence tell her to fly from him 7 How often do 
we thank God that we are endowed with reason 7 
How often do we sing his praises, and glorify his 
name, because he has " made us a little lower than 
the angels," giving us reason for our guide, and thus 
raising us above all things that are created ? Would 
it not appear as if things were not so ; as if the God 
of heaven were more bountiful to the beasts of the 
field, and the birds of the air, than to man 7 Would 
it not appear that the poet was mistaken, when he 
said, in the fulness of his heart, and depth of his be- 
lief in revelation, — 

" And to be innocent is nature's wisdom ; 
The fledge-dove knows the prowlers of the air, 
Feared soon as seen, and flutters back to shelter ; 
And the young steed recoils upon his haunches 
The never-yet-seen adder's hiss first heard. 
surer than suspicion's hundred eyes 
Is that fine sense, which, to the pure in heart, 
By mere oppugnancy of their own goodnesS; 
Reveals the approach of evil." 

Would it not seem from this that the gift of reason 
was no bounty in reality to man? as if instinct was 



-POPISH NUNNERIES. 293 

something superior to it ? Why does not innocence, 
— native, conscious innocence, — if, in reality, there is 
such a thing, — teach woman to flee from those incar- 
nate demons, Romish confessors? Why will they en- 
trust themselves, alone and unprotected by father or 
mother, brother or honorable lover, with these schem- 
ing, artful seducers 7 Why will mothers, married 
women, go to confession to these men, or why will 
husbands be such inconceivable dupes as to permit 
it '] Have husbands any idea of the questions which 
a confessor puts to their wives ? They have not 
even the remotest. Let me give them a few of these 
questions, and 1 assure them, as I have more than 
once done before, that I state nothing but what I 
know of my own knowledge. The following are a 
few of them. 1st. Have you been guilty of adultery 
or fornication, and how often? 2d. Have you de- 
sired to commit either, and how often ? 3d. Have 
you ever intended to commit fornication or adultery ? 
4th. Have you ever taken pleasure in thinking upon 
these subjects? 5th. Have you dwelt upon them 
for any length of time? 6th. Have you ever endea- 
vored to excite your own passions ? 7th. Have you 
ever taken indecent liberties with yourself, or with 
your husband ? 

Does any husband really know that when his wife 
goes to confession, — and probably she leans on his 
arm while she is going there, — that the above ques- 
tions are put to her? Assuredly, he does not. Oth- 
erwise, we must suppose him a man of base princi- 
ples in permitting such a thing. But even should he 
suspect it, and ask his wife whether they were put 
to her ; should he call upon the priest, and bring him 



i894 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

and the wife face to face : should he ask them sev- 
erally whether such interrogatories \vere put by the 
priest to the wife, they Avill jointly and severall}- 
deny it under oath, if required, and in doing this, 
they both feel justified; or, to speak more correctly 
and plainly, the priest is laughing in his sleeve, and 
the wife is his dupe. The reason, however, for the 
course they pursue, is this. The infallible church 
teaches, that when a priest is in the confessional, 
he sits there as God, and not as man; and when 
he denies under oath that he put such questions, 
he means that he did not put the questions as 
man, but as God ; and when the penitent is asked 
whether such questions were put to her, she will say 
on oath they were not, because it was God, and not 
man, that asked them. I am well aware that this 
will appear strange to Americans, but it is not the 
less true. I have asked such questions, and given 
such reasons over and over again, while acting as 
a Romish priest. I have asked them, till my soui 
sickened with disgust. Every priest in Boston asks 
those questions daily; there is not a priest in the 
United States who does not ask them. No, not 
one, — from Aroostook to Oregon, nor from Maine to 
Louisiana. Judge, then, of the moral waste and 
wilderness which Romish priests are effecting by 
hewing and clearing down everything that blooms 
or bears the fruit of virtue and holiness. 

But can such things exist in a civilized country? 
It is all the result of education, — of bad, vicious, and 
corrupt education. Let us suppose that a married 
man has a neighbor whom he believes to be honora- 
ble upright, and correct in all his dealings, so much 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 295 

SO, that he never had occasion to doubt his word, 
and would trust him with thousands, nay, milhons 
if .he had it. Suppose his Avife had the reputation 
of a good and virtuous woman. Suppose she was 
considered so by the pious members of her own 
and every other church in this city. Suppose this 
individual, to whom I have aUuded, should dis- 
cover that his wife was in the habit of meeting his 
neighbor very frequently in some retired nook or 
corner, and holding long and confidential conversa- 
tion with him, — think you he would not suspect 
something wrong? Suppose he were to ask his wife 
what they were talking about, and she should say 
that he was giving her spiritual counsel, — think you 
that this would be satisfactory to him ? Would he 
permit those interviews to continue? Surely not. 
But why distrust the well-known prudence of his 
wife, and the honor of a man he has known for 
years ? Is it wise in him to suspect a worthy man ? 
It is not only wise, but it is proper. It would even 
be criminal not to do so. The man who would not 
forbid these interviews, would be considered a low- 
spirited wretch, unworthy the society of all honora- 
ble men. He would sink even in his own estima- 
tion ; and how comes it, then, that this very man, so 
sensitive, so distrustful of the virtue of an honorable 
neighbor, will permit the same wife to hold private 
meetings, and private conversations in confessionals 
and in private rooms, with Romish priests, — stran- 
gers, some of them, and foreigners, — notorious for 
the profligacies of the orders of monks and Jesuits 
to which they belong, and the countries from which 
they came. This, I will frankly confess, is a para- 
13* 



296 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

dox, which my limited powers of ratiocination do 
not enable me to solve. I will not say that some of 
those married ladies, who go to confession, are not 
virtuous women, but 1 will unhesitatingly say, that 
many of them have been ruined in the confessional, 
that they run a fearful risk in going there at all, and 
as it is truly said, "he that loves the danger, shall 
perish therein." 

Let not married men, or married women, who be- 
long to the Roman Catholic church, suppose that I 
mean to be disrespectful to them in what I have said 
or what I may say hereafter. The reverse is the 
fact. To them I have no personal enmity, but I 
have for them the most sincere compassion. I would 
rescue them, if I could, from those wolves in sheep's 
clothing, Romish priests. It is my duty to do so. 
as their fellow-citizen, and it is peculiarly incumbent 
on me to do so, as I feel that I am the only man in 
the United States, whose personal knowledge of 
facts fits him for such a task, and whose peculiar 
circumstances enable him to do so without bias or 
prejudice. I am aware they will raise a fresh hue 
and cry against me; Popish priests and bishops will 
give tongue, and the whole Romish pack, young and 
old, married and single, widows and maids, will fol- 
low in full chorus. They can do no more than they 
have done. There is scarcely a law of this land 
which they have not accused me of violating, ever 
since I presumed to say that the Bible should be cir- 
culated among the poor Roman Catholics, and that 
the holy mother church was not infallible. The ac- 
cusations against Luther, Zuingle and Calvin, were 
not gi'eater or much more numerous, than those which 



POPISH NUNNEiUES?. 297 

Papists have brought against me, month after month, 
and year after year, ever since I left them. They 
have indicted me for assault and battery, foi disturb- 
ing public worship, by which they meant the crime 
of worshiping God otherwise than the Pope directed. 
They have indicted me for rape — keep your coun- 
tenance, reader — those chaste, moral priests of the 
Romish church have indicted me for rape. Is not 
that a high idea, Americans? — scarcely anything 
equal to it to be found in antiquity, except, perhaps, 
it may be in the conduct of Claudius, the Roman 
emperor, who, like the priests of the Romish church, 
had a very great abhorrence of everything that was 
in the least degree unchaste. Claudius, as the reader 
must know, succeeded the emperor Caligula, and 
that notorious wag, though elegant poet and satirist, 
Juvenal, tells us that he was much in the habit ol 
accusing his subjects of the crime of adultery. 
" Claudius accusat macchos," says Juvenal ; whether 
he spoke ironically or not, those who know the life 
of Claudius as well as I do the lives of Romish 
priests, can tell best. But this is not all. They 
have accused me of robberies, sending and receiving 
challenges to fight duels, having two wives — I know 
not but more — at the same time. In all cases, true 
bills of indictment have been found; Papists ap- 
peared before the grand juries in all cases, and swore 
like true sons of the infallible church, and as long as 
they had no one to contradict them, the holy church 
triumphed. In this country, however, there hap- 
pens, as yet, to be no inquisition, and there are sev- 
eral who doubt not only the infallibility of the 
Romish church, but even the impeccability of some 



298 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

of her beloved children; and hence it happened 
that all their indictments evaporated into thin air. 
These Protestant Americans, "cowards," as Papists 
call them, " and so?is of coicards and pirates^''' have 
no faith in the infallible church, and doubted the 
veracity of her pious children, even upon oath 
The consequence was that I am left to write the 
history of my venerable but guilty mother, the 
infallible church, and am not without hope that I 
shall lead her back to the paths of virtue, from 
which, in very wantonness of crime, idolatry, bru- 
tality and wickedness she has long since departed. 

It would be really amusing to see a correct list of 
the various accusations which Papists have made 
against me, with the various names and legal titles 
which they bore. The infallible church alone could 
properly classify them. There is euphony in the 
very sound of them; there is a variety, nothing 
short of oriental, in them. But to be serious ; I never 
did, nor do I now, fear the persecution of Papists, 
while in the discharge of a duty which I owe to my 
Maker and Preserver. I could always say with 
sincerity and with humble gratitudCj and I can say 
so now : — 

"Let then, earth, sea and sky 
Make war against me ! On my heart I show 
Their mighty Master's seal. In vain they try 
To end my life, that can but end its woe. 
Is that a death- bed where a Christian 'les i 
Yes ! but not his — 'tis death itself there dies." 

But to return to the subject from which I have 
digressed, without even the formality of taking leave 
of my reader ; married ladies, who are members of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 299 

-ne Roman Catholic church, will bear with me a little 
longer^ I cannot consent to leave them without far- 
ther warning ; and should their husbands and myself 
ever meet — which probably cannot be, till we meet 
tn heaven — they will thank, in place of blaming me, 
for cautioning them against the seductive wiles and 
wicked intrigues of Romish confessors. It is proba- 
ble the wearisome repetitions in my statements may 
give the reader a distaste to following them out, and 
accompanying me through them. It will, I fear, en- 
feeble the interest, which he might otherwise take 
m the result. Besides, a higher tone of thought, of 
literary taste, and intellectual feeling, would un- 
doubtedly be much more pleasant to him. The 
nature of the subject will not admit of it, and I can- 
not help, in speaking upon a gross and indelicate 
subject, doing so in a language as unpalatable to my 
own taste, as to that of the reader. Besides, I am 
not master of any other words in the English vo- 
cabulary, better calculated to convey to those for 
whom this book is intended, the full meaning and 
purport of the statements which I make. 

There is taught in the Romish church, and it pre- 
vails to an extent broad and long as the land we 
live in, a doctrine which I feel it my duty to explain 
to Americans, whether they are Protestants or con- 
verts to the church of Rome. When I say that it 
prevails over the extent of this country, I believe T 
should qualify the assertion, as I know not fully 
and exclusively of my own knowledge, that Ameri- 
can converts to the Romish church are aware that 
such a doctrine exists ; but I know that European 
Catholic women, especially the Irish, are taught it 



SOO AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

by their priests, and believe it as firmly as they do 
that their church is infaUible. It is a doctrine 
frightful even to think upon. I know nothing, in 
ancient or modern times, in heathen, pagan, or Ma- 
homedan creeds, of equal turpitude. It is calculated 
to overturn all laws, human and divine. It aims a 
fatal and deadly blow at the root of the whole social 
system. It snaps, it shatters, it tears into shreds, 
every cord that binds community to community, 
man to man, wife to husband, and child to parent. 
It is this. Married women, who have no children 
and never had any, are taught by Romish priests 
that, in case they have no children, the church has 
the power of giving them fecundity, and thus ena- 
bling them to " comply with the great object of their 
creation," viz., " to increase and multiply.'' The 
holy church, in her wisdom, or rather in her craft 
and deep knowledge of human nature, knows full 
well that married ladies, especially those who have 
property, are often unhappy because they have no 
children ; and the priests, looking upon this as a fine 
opportunity not only to indulge their own passions 
but to make money, tell such women, in the confes- 
sional, that they have the power, specially delegated 
to them from Almighty God, of giving them those 
children for which they are so anxious. I well 
recollect an instance of this Romish infatuation — 
this worse than hellish belief It proved a source 
of much trouble to myself in after life, and I believe 
I may partly trace to it the very origin of my diffi- 
culties with the Popish priests in this country. 

While officiating as a Roman Catholic priest in 
, I became acquainted with a Roman Catho- 



FOPISH NUNNERIES. 301 

lie lady and gentleman, of good character and 
considerable wealth. The husband stood well in 
society, and so did the wife, and I believe both 
deserved it. There was but one barrier, to all ap- 
pearance, in the way of their happiness. They had 
no children; and having no blood or family alliances 
in the country, this seemed a source of distress to 
the wife, though I could not help remarking that 
they were an extremely fond couple. Not very long 
after my acquaintance with them, the wife called 
on me, told me her grievance in not having chil- 
dren, and asked me how much it would cost her to 
purchase from the church, her interference in the 
matter and the blessing of having children. I for- 
got my usual caution. Indignation took the place 
of policy ; I forgot, for a moment, that I was bound 
to keep the secrets of the Pope and the infallible 
church, and to defend them both, right or wrong. I 
replied indignantly, "Madam, you are the dupe of 
priestcraft. There is no power in the church to 
countervail the will of God."' The lady retired; and 
I cannot give the reader a better idea of the infatua- 
tion of Papist women, or the consummate villany of 
Romish priests in the confessional, than by relating 
what followed. She called upon me the day follow- 
ing, stated to me that since she saw me, she called 

on the reverend Mr. , a Franciscan friar, who 

lived only a few doors from me, and having told 
him what I said to her, he raised his hands in pious 
astonishment, and told her that he expected nothing 
better from me ; that he suspected me of heresy for 
some time past, and had now a proof of it, and that 
( should be cast out of the pale of the church, as fit 



302 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



society only for the devils ; and accordingly in 
a few months after, this holy friar and the holy 
Romish bishop of the diocese, solemnly cursed me 
from the head to the toe-nails, casting me into hell 
for such damnable heresies. I understand that the 
lady of whom I have spoken is now blessed with 
an interesting family of children, and the hus- 
band one of the happiest fathers in the world. The 
friar is an exemplary and reverend servant of the 
infallible church, still hearing confessions, while 
I am a wicked heretic, with no human chance of 
salvation. ^' Sic transit gloria mu7idi J ^ Thus are 
the streams of domestic happiness and social life pol- 
luted in our very midst by Romish priests ; and yet 
they are encouraged, they are fed, they are sustained, 
they are received into society by the very rnen whose 
wives and daughters they have ruined, and with 
whose happiness they have sported and gambled. I 
say sported, because I know of my own knowledge, 
that nothing ajBfords the reverend young Yahoos of 
the Romish church, especially those who come from 
Europe, more pleasure in their private conversation, 
than speaking of the gullible Yankee heretics^ who 
fancy themselves a match for priests in the infal- 
lible church. Could Americans witness the carou- 
sals of these infidel and idolatrous priests at their 
expense, it would have a better efiect upon them 
than all I can say or write ; but as time a'bne can 
effect this, I must content myself with entreating 
my fellow-citizens to be upon their guard with 
Romish bishops and priests, or they will one day 
rue the consequences. 

Once more do I find myself far from the path in 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 303 

which I commenced these pages. I intimated to tlie 
reader, somewhere in the beginning of this book, 
that I intended to give my reasons for leaving the 
Romish church; but it would seem as if I had forgot- 
ten it ; at any rate, I have as yet but little more than 
half fulfilled it. I have, however, the satisfaction to 
believe, that the few T have given, up to the time 
of my arrival in Philadelphia, are amply sufficient. 
Fresh proofs have there been given to me, that the 
Popish church was not infallible, and that I could 
not, consistently with a correct sense of duty, support 
her doctrines or countenance the practices of her 
priests; but, even there, notwithstanding all I had 
seen and witnessed, such were the prejudices of 
education, that I still tried to persuade myself that 
Popery was religion; though I tried to circulate 
the Scriptures, and believed in the necessity of so 
doing: during four years that I spent in the col- 
lege of Maynooth, they formed no portion of the edu- 
cation of the students. It is my firm conviction, that 
out of the large number of students who received 
their education there for the ministry, there was not 
one who read the four gospels through, nor any por- 
tion of them, except such as were found in detached 
passages, in works of controversy between Catholics 
and Protestants. Until I went to college, I scarcely 
ever heard of a Bible. I know not of one in any 
parish in Munster, except it may be a Latin one, 
which each priest may or may not have, as he 
pleased. But I studied closely the holy fathers of 
the church; so did most of the students. We were 
taught to rely upon them as our sole guide in mor- 
als, and the only correct interpreters of the Bible. A 



y ' 5: AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

right of private judgment was entirely denied to us^ 
and represented as the source of muUifarious errors. 
The Bible, in fact, we had no veneration for. It was, 
in truth, but a dead letter in our college; it was a 
sealed book to us ; though there was not an equal 
number of students who were obliged to study morfj 
closely the sayings, the sophistry, the metaphysics 
and mystic doctrines of those raving dreamers, called 
holy fathers, many of whom, if now living, would 
be deemed mad men and dealt with accordingly. I 
looked back again to those fathers for proofs of the 
infallibility of the Romish church, and for some evi- 
dence to satisfy me that I had no right to the exercise 
of my private judgment, either in reading or inter- 
preting the Scriptures, — but I looked in vain. The 
fathers themselves were extremely obscure. I found 
them often inconsistent and at variance with each 
other upon many of the fundamental articles, as they 
are termed, of the Popish creed. On a re-perusal of 
those fathers, I have found them often contradict 
each other. Nay, more ; such frequently were the 
theological vagaries of these semi-deranged though 
well meaning men, that a careful reader will often 
find the same father contradicting himself Chr^r- 
sostom, whom the Papists worship as a saint, and 
Tertullian, another saint of theirs, flatly contradict 
themselves. Chrysostom says, in speaking of the 
real presence in the eucharist, that Christ gives him- 
self bodily to be eaten, and that those who receive 
him, that is, the consecrated wafer, made of flour 
and water by a priest, may see him, touch him, and 
if they wish, fix their teeth in his flesh. In another 
Dlace he says, that '' the nature of the bread is aot 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 305 

changed at all, though it is worthy to be called the 
Lord's body." TertuUian in one place maintains the 
same doctrine in relation to the real presence^ but in 
another place, he tells us, " that the meaning of the 
Scripture phrase, this is my body^ is, this is the rep- 
resentation of my body." If these 'men wore to live 
now, — if Jerome and Chrysostom and TertuUian 
were to utter such rhapsodical nonsense, what should 
we think of them or their followers ? Yet the Ro- 
mish church requires that the present generation 
shall forfeit all its advantages of education, science, 
and all the progressive advancement and expansion 
of intellect, and take the writings of those men as the 
only correct interpretation of the Word of God. It 
occurred to me, therefore, on a second perusal of 
these works, that I should reject them uncondition- 
ally. I knew full well, from my intimacy with the 
Romish church, that it was a maxim with the fa- 
thers, and expressly defended by them, as it is now 
by modern Papists, that "fraud was sometimes jus- 
tifiable for a holy end, and that falsehoods were val- 
uable auxiliaries to truth !" This doctrine is now 
avowed, or at least taught in the confessional^ and 
in Catholic countries out of the confessional, as well 
as in every Popish college in the universe. 

From these I turned to my neglected Bible, and in 
it I discovered no such maxims as were taught by 
the holy fathers, and are now inculcated by the 
priests. I have not found that any of the evange- 
lists ever even intimated "that fraud was justifiable, 
or that it was ever lawful to do evil that good may 
come." Apart from all this, it app(^.ared to me not 
at all unlikely that the inspired men who wrote the 



30-3 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Scriptures, knew as well how to convey their own 
ideas to the world, as the holy fathers or the infalli- 
ble church did ; nor could I see anything heterodox, 
m supposing that if there was anything unintelligi- 
ble or obscure in their language, they would leave 
us some record or note of the fact. They wrote b) 
command, and under the direct inspiration of God ; 
they wrote to instruct and enlighten the world ; and 
with all due deference to the infallible churchy and 
her holy fathers, I think it is fairly to be presumed, 
that their writings are less obscure, and more entitled 
to universal credence, than the rhapsodies of fathers 
and monks, one half of whom were as crazy as so 
many Millerites. It occurred to me, naturally, as 1 
think it would to any man who was not clean daft^ 
that I might, without presumption, invoke the aid of 
the Holy Spirit, take up the Bible, read it prayer- 
fully, and interpret it honestly, according to the best 
of my judgment, the opinion of the holy fathers and 
the infallible church to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. 

Up to this very moment I was negotiating with 
the holy church, and the holy church negotiating 
with me, through Bishop England, of Charleston, 
and a very reverend divine now in New York, for an 
arrangement of our misunder standing. But we 
could not agree. There was now a barrier between 
us, which I could not pass. It was now with me, 
not a question of church or salaries, of location or 
domestic associations. The controversy now be- 
tween me and the Romish church assumed a grave 
character : it was now a question with me of light or 
darkness, of life or death. I might have gone to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 307 

Rome^ fallen upon my knees, kissed the Pope's toe, 
and obtained the blessing of that poor old man. 1 
might have acknowledged the holy fathers were bet- 
ter authority and were safer guides in matters of 
faith, and in all things that concerned eternal life, 
than the holy Scriptures. It was an easy matter for 
me, so far as human effort was necessary, to cast 
aside the Bible altogether, and substitute in its place 
the sayings and opinions of the holy fathers, whose 
vanity often led them to suppose themselves inspired. 
Nothing was easier for me than to reject the Bible as 
a rule of faith, and permit myself to be governed by 
the babblings of popes and churchmen. This lan- 
guage, perhaps, may be deemed disrespectful, but it 
is not so. I cannot apprehend how anything I say 
can be deemed disrespectful, while I confine myself 
within the limits which the example of South, Jere- 
my Taylor and others have prescribed. No theo- 
logian, no one acquainted with history, sacred or 
profane, or with the eminent Dr. Robert South, one 
of the most learned divines of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, would accuse him of any intention to dispar- 
age the memory of the early Christians, who deserve 
to be honored, nor any of the doctrines which they 
maintained, unless they were universally admitted 
to be so absurd, that no man of common sense could 
sustain them. Yet this eminent man, speaking of 
the doctrine of transubstantiation, as taught by Chry- 
sostom and Tertullian, calls it ^^ the most stupendous 
piece of nonsense^ that ever was owned before a ra- 
tional world P 

Dr. Jeremy Taylor, a distinguished Irish theolo- 
gian, 'speaking of transubstantiation, as taught by 



308 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

the holy fathers, says, ''^ By this doctrine^ the same 
thing" slays in a place and goes away from it ; it 
removes from itself and yet abides close by itself and 
in itself, and out of itself ; it is brought from heaven 
to earthy and yet is nowhere in the way^ nor ever stirs 
out of heaven. It makes a thing contained bigger 
than that which contains it, and all Chrisfs body to 
go into a part of the body ; his whole head into his 
oion mouth, if he did eat the eucharist, as it is proba- 
ble that he did, and certain that he m.ight have done?"* 
But the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus 
Christ was not the only nonsense which these holy 
fathers taught. They believed largely in the doc- 
trine of miracles. 

Ambrose, who Wcis Bishop of Milan about the year 
350, has been always, and is now, considered by the 
Popish church one of her best authorities. Papists 
tell us, that while he lay an infant in his cradle, a 
swarm of bees settled upon his lips as a presage of his 
future eloquence ; and I believe it is generally admit 
ted, that if any of the fathers quoted by Papists is 
good authority in matters of faith, he is among the 
best. During my doubts whether I should take the 
fathers of the Romish church, or the holy Bible 
for my guide, I was led especially to the examina- 
tion of the doctrines maintained by St. Ambrose and 
those taught in the Bible, and never before did I see 
that common, though vulgar saying, ''comparisons 
are odious," more strictly fulfilled. I will take one. 
for "^.xample. 

Aiiiong the many rhapsodies taught by St. Am- 
brose, a belief in Popish miracles was the most pro- 
minent. He taught, as I have stated above, that 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 309 

the wafer which a Romish priest gives to a commu- 
nicant, was the sohd flesh of Christ, and so sohd, 
that he who received it might stick his teeth into the 
flesh. 

The following is another specimen of the miracles 
in which he believed. The Empress Justina ask^ 
St. Ambrose for one of the Romish churches for the 
use of the Arian sect. He refused her, and was then 
about to consecrate that sumptuous basilic, after- 
wards called St. Ambrose's church. The people, as 
we are told, were anxious to deposit in the edifice 
the relics of some martyr, — relics were used by the 
holy father Ambrose then, as they are now by Po- 
pish priests, — to cure all diseases. The people in- 
sisted upon having them, and accordingly the holy 
father promised that they should be procured. Pau- 
linus and Augustine tell us that "he was favored with 
a vision of two martyrs, who were never before heard 
of, named Gervusius and Protusius, who, hearing in 
heaven of the holy father's design to build a Popish 
church, instantly fled from their place of repose, and 
told him that they were murdered by infidel heretics 
in such a place, and on such a day ; that if he would 
send men with spades and shovels to the place desig- 
nated, they would find their bones, and to have them 
removed and deposited in the new church." The 
holy saint, in compliance with this glorious informa- 
tion, which he received in a vision, sent a number 
of men with spades, shovels, pickaxes, &c., and they 
soon found the "bodies of two men of wonderful 
stature." The heads were separate from the bodies, 
and the ground all round was soaked with blood. I 
use the language of the holy fathers themselves, 



810 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

translated into English, which, considering that all 
the flesh had already disappeared, may be considered 
a complication of miracles, unless it can be supposed, 
as the relator wickedly observes, " that it may be new 
created." As the workmen proceeded down towards 
the martyrs' resting-place, " their skeletons began to 
bestir themselves in such powerful sort, that an urn 
was thrown with violence from its pedestal, and rolled 
to the sacred spot ; and some of the possessed, who 
had been brought upon such a promising occasion 
to be exorcised, began to howl and scream in the 
most lamentable ways, thus giving attestation to the 
power of glorious martyrs." " The relics, blood and 
bones were carefully removed to the new basilic, and 
on the road many miracles were wrought on diseased 
persons, who were so happy as to touch them ; such 
was their virtue, that even to touch the pall which 
covered them was sufficient." Among others, a 
butcher, who had been a long time blind, was re- 
stored to sight. The blood of these martyrs was 
worked up into paste, and distributed all over Chris- 
tendom, as an antidote against all diseases. 

The writings of the holt/ fathers abound with 
legends of this kind. We are told by them, that one 
of the Romish saints in Egypt, named Apia Till, suf- 
fered martyrdom, after being cut to pieces ten times 
each day, for ten successive days, by the tyrant, 
Maximin, and was every night put together by the 
angel Gabriel. Another tells us, that he has a bottle 
in which are corked up carefully some of the "rays 
of the star of Bethlehem, handed down to posterity 
by one of the wise men who went in search of the 
new-born Saviour." Another of those infallible lu- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 311 

natics tells us, •' that he has sealed up in perfect pre- 
serva.tioa some of the sounds of the bells used at 
Solomon's Temple.'' 

Among the innumerable miracles in which the 
holy fathers of the Romish church believed, or pre- 
tended to believe, there are some so ridiculously in- 
credible, that humanity itself, in the lowest depths 
of degradation into which it has fallen, blushes at 
their repetition. It is gravely related by a Roman 
Catholic divine, — and no Roman Catholic in the 
United States disbelieves it, — that the sacrament of 
the Eucharist^ or, to make it more intelligible to my 
readers, the wafer which the priest gives to the 
sick, and elevates to the people while saying mass, 
was conveyed into a bee-hive. In all probability, it 
dropped out of the pocket of some priest. The bees 
were found dead, and in the midst of them the wafer 
became an infant Christ, looking like other infants, 
but more beautiful. (See Peter Cluniac, first book, 
first chapter.) It is related by another Romish wri- 
ter, that a hive of bees was once heard singing most 
harmoniously. A devout priest, passing by, hap- 
pened to look in, and saw among them the holy sa- 
crament of the Eucharist, to which they were sing- 
ing glory and praise. 

There is scarcely an Ameucan traveller, of any 
note, who has not visited Naples. There are now 
in that city of worse than Pagan idolatry, some of 
those converts J which Bishop Penv/ick says he has 
made from the /' most respectable Protestant families 
in Boston." The bishop was right in one thing. 
The families to which he alluded, are highly and 
deservedly respectable ; their children are respecta- 
14 



312 AURICULAli CONFESSION AND 

ble, and these parents can have no ohjection that 1 
should appeal to them for the truth of any assertion 
I make. I appeal to those Ame?^lcan converts now in 
Itah^, whether it is not believed there, that Saint 
Januarius, on a certain day, is invoked to be " pro- 
pitious to the people." During this invocation, in 
which the whole cit}^, and thousands upon thousands 
from the neighboring country, unite, certain ceremo- 
nies are performed, bells are rung, every one goes to 
confession^ masses are said, incense offered, holy 
water is sprinkled profusely, beads are counted, 
relics are kissed, and when all this is over, a priest 
comes forth from the sacristy of the church, preceded 
and followed by an immense train of boys, bear- 
ing lights, &c., &c. The priest holds in his hand 
some of the blood of St. Januarius, formed into a 
hard crust. He calls upon the saint to be propitioys, 
and to grant his prayer. If the saint is willing to be 
propillons, the crust of the saint's blood, which the 
priest holds in his hand, bubbles into a red liquid. 
For a true account of this, I refer the general reader 
to Dr. Moore's Tour. The doctor was the father of 
Sir John Moore, and was an eye-witness of this 
mummery; but I will refer those respecTable Protest- 
ant fainiUes^ from whom the Jesuit Bishop Fen wick 
says he has made so many converts, to their own 
children, now in Naples, and Avho have been seduced 
by these arrant and designing knaves, — Popish 
priests and bishops, — to abandon their homes, their 
country, and their civil rights, and give them in ex- 
change for such degrading mummeries as they are 
now witnessing in Italy. Their children will tell 
them that what I state is correct. Let these parents 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 313 

reflect, that probably they themselves are the cause 
of the errors into which their children have been de- 
coyed. It was recently observed by an eminent 
divine of Boston, that the great prosperity of this 
country may be the cause of the many evils which 
threaten oar people. The sentiment appears strange 
to many, but the eloquent gentleman was right. 
The downfall of nations might always be traced 
to their superabundant wealth and prosperity. 
The same may be applied to individuals. Reader, 
did you ever see infidelity in a cottage? Never, 
where the Bible has found its way. Misery you 
will find there, but that you will find in palaces. 
The poor love the name and the religion of Christ. 
The puritan fathers of the nabobs of this land loved 
them, and they had reason to do so. To religion 
and to the Bible they are indebted for all their 
worldly comfort, their liberty, and their civil rights ; 
and the parents who permit their children to be se- 
duced from their tender care by Jesuits, notorious 
for centuries for nothing but fraud, deception, seduc- 
tion and avarice, have a long account to settle with 
their Eternal Master. ^ Let them take heed, lest their 
wealth be the cause of the temporal and spiritual 
poverty of their beloved children. 

Be not startled, reader, if 1 inform you that a mira- 
cle, more incredible than that of the blood of Janua- 
rius, has been wrought in these United States only a 
few years ago, if we are to believe a Roman Catho- 
lic bishop, who was reputed to be one of the most 
talented men in the Romish church. 

Who is it, that does not recollect the notorious 
Vrince Hohenloe, who, a few years ago, played sc 



314 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



many ''fantastic tricks before high Heaven," and 
who, if we are correctly informed by his Popish bio- 
graphers, wrought more miracles in one month, than 
the Saviour of mankind did during the whole course 
of his ministerial life? 

tt appears that the Popish priests and nuns of the 
United States have been for several years expecting, 
or. at least, pretending to expect, some miraculous 
evidence of divine favor in their behalf. The nuns 
and siste?^s of charity in the convents of Emmetsburg 
and Georgetown felt jealous that their brothers and 
sisters in Europe should be empowered to work and 
witness miracles almost daily, and thereby enrich 
their convents, while they themselves had not a sin- 
gle miracle among them, — at least, of their own 
manufacture. Up to that time, as far as I know, no 
miracle was performed or witnessed by Popish nuns 
and lay sisters in the United States. This was 
deemed a serious calamity. It was even a loss of 
revenue, and this the priests and nuns knew full well. 
Something must be done; revenue must be had 
from some source : and the unprincipled priests and 
bishops of this country, understanding well the 
weaknesses and imperfections of humanity, know- 
ing that human nature is the same in all nations 
and among all people, and seeing the vast benefits, 
which, in a pecuniary point of view, their church 
derived from the belief of their people in miracles, 
resolved to try an experiment, upon a small scale, 
upon brother Jonathan. Accordingly, about the 
year 182S, when St. Hohenloe was in all his glory, 
his divine power shining in full blaze, the bishops 
and priests of the Roman Catholic church resolved 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



315 



upon having a miracle of their own, instanter. The 
following was their modus operandi : 

A lay sister in the nimnery of Emmetsburg or 
Georgetown, I forget which, was taken ill. She bore 
her indisposition, which was attended with excrycia- 
ting pains ^ — ^^risum tenia tis,^^ — with angelic resig- 
7iation. The best medical aid was always at hand,, 
but she grew worse and worse every day, until her 
case became hopeless. Her recovery was pronounced 
impossible. Medical aid could do no more ; her 
whole time was devoted to prayer; but, — mirihile 
dictu^ — one night, as she lay in momentary expecta- 
tion of death, the spirit of Prince Hohenloe paid her 
a visit, bid her be of good cheer, and directed her to 
have mass said for her in her room on a certain day, 
and at a certain hour, — naming both, — and that, 
when the priest raised up the wafer at mass, she 
should look at it, and would see the infant Saviour 
in his hands, body and blood, soul and divinity, and 
in shape and form like other infants. She commu- 
nicated this visit from the saint to her confessor. 
He, as is usual in these cases, did not believe it at 
first ; but the saint visited him, too, and reprimanded 
him for his incredulity. Bishop England, of Charles- 
ton, was immediately sent for. The circumstance 
of the saint's visit was related to him ; he pretended 
to disbelieve it also for a while, but was finally con- 
vinced of its truth, and consented to say mass on 
the appointed day and hour in the lay sister's sick 
room, and, almost incredible to relate, this Bishop 
England, a man of talent, and a man of sense, 
though the slave of the Pope of Rome, <7 ouches in a 
letter to the public, through the Catholic Miscel- 



316 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

lany^ which he himself then edited, that the whole 
of this lay sister^ s fal-deral was true, — that the saint 
visited her, — that he said mass according to his 
instructions, and that she saw in his hands^ not a 
lj|.ile wafer, made of flour and water, but a full 
grown infant^ in all the natural proportions of 
humanity. 

I regret extremely that I have not the Catholic 
Miscellany, containing an account of this transaction 
by Bishop England himself, as it is hardly to be ex- 
pected that Americans can otherwise believe it ; but 
undoubtedly Bishop Hughs, of New York, and 
Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, must have files of the 
Miscellany, containing an account of this miraculous 
event. 

Is this not enough of itself to deter any man, en- 
dowed with the faculty of reason, from holding any 
communion whatever with Roman Catholic bishops 
and priests? A degradation of the understanding 
like this, and among a people like ours, cannot exist, 
unaccompanied with depravity of heart. The intel- 
lect cannot be darkened, when the heart is pure and 
bright, and such a heart cannot be possessed by a 
Papist who remains so after a thorough knowledge 
of Popish iniquities, which all priests and bishops 
are supposed to have. I declare it as my solemn 
conviction, and from my perfect knowledge of Po- 
pery, that a thoroughly educated Popish priest, 1 
mean thoroughly educated in Popery, can no longer 
retain the image of the Deity, which the God of na- 
ture has stamped upon every created mind, unde- 
filed or undebased, while he has any connection 
with the church of Rome. That church is and eve* 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 317 

has been the curse of the earth, the scourge of all 
good governments, and the greatest obstacle to t'.ie 
Divine Will. Under this conviction, I have ad- 
dressed myself to the public in this book. Under 
this conviction I have taken the liberty of appealing 
to Protestant families, and cautioning them against 
the intrigues of priests. It was this conviction that 
induced me to disregard that ancient aphorism 
v/hich says. '^ If the people will be deceived, let them 
be deceived." I felt that the people had no chance 
to escape deception, unless the truth were knov/n 
and fairly explained to them. When dust is thrown 
into the eyes of the people, or even into those of 
private families, it is the duty of every man, and 
mine as well as that of others, to remove and clear 
it away: otherwise, I should be undeserving of the 
blessings and privileges secured to me by the laws 
of this country. Could I rest supinely and see a- 
body of men prevail by artifice, who hate the vei;y 
name of liberty, without resisting them as far as in 
me lay, I should be acting criminally. It is bad 
enough to tolerate amongst us miracle- mongers and 
convicted idolaters; but to allow them to continue 
in the practice and propagation of such deeds, with- 
out warning our people and cautioning them against 
being drawn into the whirlpool of Popish corrup- 
tion, which now foams and boils and bubbles over 
our land, would show in me an ingratitude towards 
this country, to which I owe everything I am, and 
v/hich gives me as good a right as others to expect 
much more. 

It is strange that we should have amongst us a 
society called Puseyites, who believe as firmly as 



318 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Papists do in the long-exploded doctrine of mira- 
cles, — a doctrine upon which age after age has pro- 
nounced an unqualified verdict of censure and rep- 
robation. Yet so it is. Allow me to give you an 
example of the long list of miracles in which they 
believe. 

" Sixty confessors were made prisoners by Hune- 
riCj the tyrant king of the African Yandals, in the 
4th century. He ordered their tongues to be cut 
out, even to the roots, inclusively ; but notwithstand- 
ing this loss of their tongues, roots and all, they 
lived many years after, and spoke more plainly than 
ever." 

The reverend Mr. Ward, a distinguished friend 
of Puseyism, now living in England, and looked 
upon by the Puseyites in the United States as one 
of the most able advocates of their wild doctrine, as- 
sures us with great gravit}^, and on the authority of 
the holy fathers of the middle ages, that the above 
fact is true, and as much entitled to credit as any- 
thing related in the holy Scriptures. He even tells us 
that '•' to attribute anything like idolatry, or anything 
approaching it, to such men as related the above 
and similar facts, was a fearful ap-proximation to 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.'' 

The Mr. Ward to whom I allude is well known 
to many literary men in this country, as the author 
of a work recently published, and called Ward's 
Ideal of a Christian Church. The name of the work 
is assuredly an appropriate one. His church must 
be ideal indeed. It is something invisible, intangi- 
ble, hitherto unknown and never heard of before. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 319 

either in scriptural or church history ; and where he 
found the materials, out of which he formed this 
ideal of a Christian church, must be known only to 
himself *But Mr. Ward is a philosopher, — so say 
the Puseyites, — and philosophers now-a-days have 
some strange dreams. They had such in all times 
and in all ages of the Christian, as well as the hea- 
then world. "Oh! there is a husk and shell, Yor- 
ick, which grows up Avith learning, which their un- 
skilfulness knows not how to fling away. Sciences 
may be learned by rote, said my father to Yorick. 
Yorick thought my father inspired." 

Whether Puseyites think Mr. Ward inspired or 
not, I am at a loss to know; nor am I a judge; but 
that he is a philosopher^ is beyond doubt. Nor do I 
feel the least hesitancy in saying that he will have', 
one day or another, his name inscribed m the same 
niche, and his ashes rest in the same urn, with sucli 
dislmguished men as Joe Smith, Hiram Smith 
and O. Brownson, all conspicuously eminent philos- 
ophers. The fact of my not understanding one 
word these eminent philosophers have uttered, is no 
argument against their ideal churches, or their ideal 
theories. 

"I will enter into obligations this moment, said 
my father, to lay out all my Aunt Dinah's legacy in 
charitable uses, if the corporal has any one deter- 
minate idea, annexed to any one word he has 
repeated." Thus spoke the learned author of the 
Tristrapedia to Trim; but it by no means followed, 
that lYim was not a philosopher, no more than it 
does that Mr. Ward and other Puseyite doctors are 
not philosophers, though not one of them has any 
14* 



320 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

one determinate idea annexed to any one word they 
have said or written. 

Thrice honored, then, he Monks, Mormonitcs, 
Millerites and Brownsonites. All will have their 
da 7, and so will common sense. 

I am apprehensive that some will accuse me of lev- 
ity in my manner of alluding to Puseyism. Others 
will say that I should have mentioned no names, or, 
if I did, I should have treated them with respect and 
kindness. Far be it from me to treat a grave sub- 
ject lightly; but when I see the whole Christian 
world represented as profligate, and the Popish 
world alone represented as sinless and pure, by the 
authors of Puseyism, I can scarcely treat such a 
false representation and perversion of truth other- 
wise than with contempt and irony ; and when 1 
bring before the public the names of some of the 
individuals who have merited this, by exhibiting 
themselves as the authors and abettors of these gross 
outrages upon all that is sacred among men and 
among nations, I only do them justice. Are acts 
alone, and ngt their consequences, to be noticed? 
Are we to take cognizance of effects, and pass by in 
silence their causes 7 Are we to wage a seven years' 
war against Ward's Ideal of a Christian Churchy 
and against other ideals of moonstricken dreamers, 
and say not a word of the dreamers themselves, or 
the consequences that follow from them 7 Suppose 
Ave had here in Boston, or New York, the hydropho- 
bia ; suppose a citizen were in pursuit of the mad 
dog which introduced it; would any of my readers 
say to the citizen, never mind the dog, let him go, 
but take care of the hydrophobia? Assuredly not. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 321 

The name, the color, the appearance of (lie dog, and 
the sj^mptoms of his madness, should be proclaimed 
to the public, lest he might scatter the hydrophobia 
still further amongst them. Suppose an incendiary 
was seen on the streets of one of our large and popu- 
lous cities, say, for instance, Boston or New York, 
and that our police officers were in pursuit of him; 
let us fancy a crowd of sympathizers interfering and 
saying to the officers, let that man alone ; pursue him 
no farther; do not even mention that he is an incen- 
diary ; it may be the cause of sending him to gaol, 
or, perhaps, to the state prison for life; say nothing 
to any one against him, — but take care of fires. See 
well to it that the city is not burned. What, under 
these circumstances would be thought of the sympa- 
thizers? Who would feel for theyn if the city was 
reduced to ashes? Who would feel for them if their 
homes were rendered desolate, and their wives and 
children made houseless. I would not check the 
generous or natural flow of human sympathy, but I 
do not know that I should do wrong in saying, that 
such men deserved no commiseration. 

Under these circumstances, why should I be ac- 
cused of treating a grave subject lightly or ironi- 
cally? Never did the witty Lord Shaftsbury utter a 
plainer truth than when he said, that ridicule is one 
of those principal lights or natural mediums by which 
things are to be viewed, in order to a thorough re- 
cognition. 

I am aware that there are many objections to the 
use of ridicule and irony, in speaking on grave sub- 
ects ; but, as Fielding very properly observes, there 
can be no objection to making use of its assistance 



32.2 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

in. expelling and banishing all falsehood and impos- 
ture when once fairly detected : and as this method 
is for my present purpose nnexceptionable, I think 
it will also prove efficacious. 

Having perused the dreams, or, if the reader pre- 
fers it, opinions of the holy fathers, and taken a 
glance at those of a new sect amongst us called Pu- 
seyit.es, — which is hut another name for Popery, — I 
could see no reason why I should believe them of 
higher authority than the Scriptures, or why I should 
not prefer the latter for my rule of faith. The holy 
fathers of the church of Rome, and her unbapiized 
children, Puseyites, seem to me of equal authority. 
1 say unbaptized, because I know not that their 
reputed parents, the Pope and his spouse, the church 
of Rome, ever thought of such a thing as Puseyite. 
I am rather inclined to think that the venerable 
couple are, up to this moment, unconscious of having 
any paternity whatever in Puseyism. At any rate, 
their holy fathers, such as Mr. Ward, Newman and 
others, appear to me as demented and clean daft as 
any that ever existed in the middle ages. The 
" Knight of Cervantes," as a late number of the Lon- 
don Quarterly expresses it, "never abandoned him- 
self to delirious musings, on the faded glories of 
chivalry, more madly than these sentimentalists to 
visions of Popish powers, and the glories of the 
saints." 

The Bible was with them a matter of minor con- 
sideration. I knew by experience that it was so; 
and I know that it is sr at the present day, with 
every priest and bishop of the Romish church. 1 
was aware then, as 1 am now, that it was perfectly 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 323 

•iseless to attempt reasoning with them, and I had, 
of course, no alternative left but to cast from me 
their writings and doctrines, as the veriest trash that 
ever was written, and seek from the Bible, the foun- 
tain of truth, instructions for my future life, i 
looked upon the majority of the holy fathers either 
as notorious blockheads or dishonest knaves. There 
is no alternative. There is not even a medium. 

But to return to the subject, from which I have so 
widely, though unconsciousl3^ deviated. 

Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia, I became 
acquainted with a Protestant family. I had the 
pleasure of dining occasionally with them, and could 
not help noticing a seemingly delicate young man. 
who waited at the table. There was something in 
the countenance and whole appearance of this indi- 
vidual which struck me as singular. I could see 
no indication of positive wickedness or signal de- 
pravity in the external configuration of the young 
man's head. The expression of the eye indicated 
meekness, humility, and habitual obedience, rather 
than anything else ; but I could see, nevertheless, in 
the closely-compressed lips and furtive glance, which 
I could only occasionally catch, — and even then by 
a sort of stealth, — something that puzzled me. I 
know not why, but I could not like him. There 
was no cause, as far as I could see, why I should 
dislike the young man. Constitutionally, I was my- 
self rather fearless than otherwise. I cannot recol- 
lect that, with equal means of defence, I ever before 
feared any one. 

I do not desire to be considered a braggadocio, nor 
do I make this assertion with any such view. I 



324 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



have not in my composition. — if I know myself, — a 
single particle of bravery, neither do I covet its pos- 
session. I have often seen men of bravery tremble 
at the roaring of a lion, caged up and strongly 
chained in a menagerie. I have often seen and 
heard a brave man whistle as he passed through a 
church-yard ; a brave man will shudder and quail at 
the very sight of his own shadow. A bully, a cut- 
throat, a highway robber, a Jesuit, or a traitor, may 
be brave ; conspirators against the peace and pros- 
perity of their country may be, and have been, brave 
men. I desire not to belong to this class; but I de- 
sire sincerely to merit the high distinction of being 
considered a man of courage. To this class all sin- 
cere Christians belong. To this class all who were 
distinguished for virtue and morality, even among 
the heathens, belonged. Witness the conduct of 
Cicero. He sought to shelter himself against the 
violent assaults and personal attacks of the conspira- 
tor Catiline; he wished no unnecessary, uncalled-for 
coUision with this blood-thirsty villain, when no 
good could follow, and his duty did not require it. 
But when the good of his country demanded it, and 
the voice of conscience called upon him, Cicero 
came forth, alone, and met the conspirator, Cati- 
line, in the presence of the whole senate of ^-ome, 
and charged him, face to face, with his crimes, his 
treason, and his conspiracy. Cicero was not a 
brave man, according to the acceptation of the word 
bravery among the assassins and stiletto-bearers of 
his day, nor would he be considered so in the accep- 
tation of the word among the brawling repealers 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 325 

O'Connelliles, traitors and conspirators of the present 
day ; but he was a man of courage. 

There is a wide difference between a brave man, 
and a man oi courage. A brave man may stand at 
the mouth of the cannon, while under the influence 
of some animal emotion, and quail even at an ima- 
ginary danger ; but a courageous man smiles at all 
such things, and calmly prepares, and is always 
ready to meet those that are real. A man may be 
brave, and fear the whistling of the wind; but a 
courageous man fears nothing, not even the whisthng 
of the cannon's ball. 

Luther Avas not a brave man, in the modern ac- 
ceptation of that term. He rushed not among his 
foes; they hunted him like a wild beast, but they 
turned him not from his path. He met them face to 
face. He unfurled the . standard of Christianity : 
he took his stand, and met them, and fought them 
under that glorious banner. He was not brave, but 
he was a man of courage. 

These are the men I should like to imitate, and 
their courage, — '' Sic 7n,agna com parvis comjwnere 
soleham^^ — is that which Popish priests and Jesuits, 
traitors to their God and this country of my adop- 
tion, will find I possess, as far as my limited powers 
of mind or body will permit. 

Cicero looked Catiline in the face, and told him 
he was a conspirator and a traitor. Luther looked 
the miracle and indulgence mongers of Germany in 
the facp, and told them they were base idolaters; 
and I tell the minions of the Pope in the United 
States, that they are worthless idolaters, traitors and 
conspirators against the peace of this country, and 



326 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



that their sovereign lord, the Pope of Rome, should 
be made to feel that his bulls and insolent inter- 
tt;rence in the affairs of the United States, shall 
soon meet that chastisement which is due to treason 
and its abettors. 

But to return. I could never find the eye of tli.s 
man fixed upon me without an involuntary feeling 
of dread. I met him often in the streets; he always 
seemed neat and tidy in his person ; he was civil and 
respectful in his deportment ; never seemed to forget 
that society had its grades, and that circumstances 
had clearly designated his own. With that he 
seemed well contented; never, as far as I could see, 
seeming to feel the least desire of intruding upon 
that of others. This being rather a rare case in the 
United States, twenty years ago, at any rate, when 
it was difficult to get servants who knew their places, 
struck me as another singular feature in his man- 
ner and character, and did not at all tend to remove 
the unpleasant impressions which his appearance 
made upon my mind. Not long after this, a mes- 
senger called at my rooms to say that '' Theodore 

" was taken ill, and wished to see me. I was 

then officiating as a Romish priest, and calling to 
see him, was shown up stairs to the door of a gar- 
ret room, into which, after a loud rap and announc- 
ing my name, I was admitted to the sick young man. 
He had returned to his bed before I entered, and was 
wrapped in a large overcloak. I asked him whether 
he wanted to see me, and for what purpose. He 
deliberately turned out of his bed, locked the door 
again, very respectfully handed me a chair, and 
asked me to sit down, as he had something very im- 



rOPISH NUNNERIES. 327 

porlant to tell me. He wrapped himself again in 
his cloak, lay on the outside of the bed, and spoke to 
me in a firm, decided tone to the following effect : 

'' Sir, you have taken me for a young man, but you 
are mistaken. I am a girl, but not so young as 1 
appeared to you in my boy's dress. I sent for yon, 
because I want to get a character^ and confess to 
you before I leave the city." I answered, "You must 
explain yourself more fully before you do either." I 
moved my chair further from the bed, and tightened 
my grasp upon a sword-cane Avhich I carried in my 
hand. "Feel no alarm," said this now young wo- 
man ; " I am as well armed as you are," — takmg from 
mider her jacket an elegant poignard, — "I will not 
hurt you. I am a lay sister belonging to the order of 
Jesuits in Stonyhust, England, and I wear this dag- 
ger to protect myself" There was no longer any 
mystery in the matter. I knew now where 1 was, 
and the character of the being that stood before me. 

I discovered from her that she arrived in New 
Orleans, some time previous, with all necessary 
recommendations to the priests and nuns of that 
city. She had the necessary "Shibboleth" from the 
Jesuits of Stonyhust, to their brothers and sisters, 
who were then, and are now, numerous in that city. 
They received her with all due caution, as far as 
could be seen by the public ; but privately in the 
warmest manner. Jesuits are active and dihgent in 
the discharge of their duties to their superiors, and 
of course, this sister, who was chosen from among 
many for her zeal and craft, lost no time in entering 
on her mission. The Sisters of Charity in New 
Orleans took immediate charge of her, recommended 



328 AURICULAE CQNFESSION AND 

her as chambermaid to one of the most respectable 
Protestant famihes m the city; and having clothed 
her m an appropriate dress, she entered upon hei 
employment. She was active, diligent and very 
competent. The young ladies of the family were 
delighted with her; she appeared extremely pions, 
but not ostentatiously so. She seemed desirous to 
please in all things; talked but seldom of religion, 
but took good care that her devotional exercises 
should be noticed, though she seemed to avoid such 
a thing. Her conduct was in every way unexcep- 
tionable. So great a favorite did she become in the 
family, that in a short time she became acquainted 
with all the circumstances and secrets, from those of 
the father down to those of the youngest child. 

xlccording to a custom universally in vogue 
among the Jesuit spies, she kept notes of every oc- 
currence which may tend to elucidate the character 
of the family, never carrying them about her, but 
depositing them for safe keeping with the mother 
abbess, especially deputed to take charge of them. 
She soon left this family luider some pretext or 
other, obtained from them an unqnalified recom- 
mendation for honesty and competency, which, with 
the previous and secret arrangements of the Sisters 
of Charity^ obtained for her without delay a place 
in another Protestant family. Here, too, she was 
without fault, active, honest and industrious, to all 
appearance. Little did these families know that 
while they and their children were quietly reposing 
in the arms of sleep, this apparently innocent wait- 
ingnvdid or chambermaid was, perhaps, in the dead 
hour of night, reducing to paper their conversation 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 329 

of the day previous, and preparing it, at least as 
much of it as could answer any Jesuitical purpose, 
to be recorded among the secret archives of the Jesuit 
college of Stonyhust, from which they were to be 
transcopied to those of the parent college in Rome. 

Thus did this lay sister continue to go from place 
to place, from family to family, until she became 
better acquainted with the politics, the pecuniary 
means, religious opinions, and whether favorable or 
not to the propagation of Popery in this country, 
than even the very individuals with whom she resi- 
ded. No one suspected her ; all believed her inno- 
cent and industrious; the only fault they could find 
with her, was that she seemed too fond of going 
from one place to another. For this, however, the 
Sisters of Charity had some salvo or other. 

This was not the best of the joke, if joke it 
may be called. This excellent chambermaid, or 
"ather lay Jesuit sister, wished to leave New Or- 
eans and come north to a better climate : and how 
do you think, reader, the means were raised to 
defray the expenses of travelling? There was no 
difficulty in the matter. Americans can be gulled 
at all times. The Sisters of Charity have always 
some friend in readiness to supply them with the 
means of performing corporal works of mercy. This 
friend went round to these American families where 
this chambermaid lived from time to time; told 
them that she wanted to come on as far as Balti- 
more; that it was a pity to have her travel as a 
steerage passenger; a person of her virtue and cor- 
rect deportment should not be placed in a situation 
where she might be liable to insult or rude treat- 



330. 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



men.-. A cabin passage should be procured for her: 
she should be introduced to some respectable famiiy 
who were going north, and would take charge of 
her. The necessary funds were immediately col- 
lected for her; the generous Protestants with whom 
she lived, pitying the poor girl, told her she might 
want the little she had earned to support herself in 
the north, until she could get a place. A handsome 
purse was soon made up, a cabin passage was en- 
gaged, and the young ladies on whom she waited 
made her presents of every article of dress necessary 
for her comfort or convenience. She was the depos- 
itory of all their love-stories, — she knew the names 
of their lovers, she heard their love-sighs, and prob- 
ably witnessed many of their tears ; at all events, if 
there were secrets among them, they were known to 
her ; and having made herself acquainted with the 
state of things in New Orleans, she started for Balti- 
more, laughing in her sleeves at the success of her 
mission so far, and at the credulity of American 
dolts, as Jesuits very properly term them. 

On arriving in Baltimore, she, of course, called 
upon the nuns of that city, who were prepared for 
her reception, and had already a situation engaged 
for a " chambermaid whom they expected from New 
Orleans, and who was coming highly recommended 
by some of the first families in that city." She took 
possession of a place as soon as convenient, spent 
several months in that city, discharging all her 
duties faithfully, no one finding any fault with her, 
except her restlessness in not staying long with any 
family. Having now become acquainted with the 
secrets and circumstances of almost every Protestant 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 331 

family of note in Baltimore, and made her report to 
the mother abbess of the nmmery of her order in 
that city, she retired to the District of Cohimbia, and 
after advising with the mother abbess of the con- 
vent, she determined to change her apparent charac- 
ter and appearance. 

By advice of that venerable lady^ the holy prioress, 
on whom many of the wives of our national repre- 
sentatives, and even grave senators, look as an ex- 
ample oi piety and chastity^ she cut short her hair, 
dressed herself in a smart-looking waiter's jacket 
and trowsers, and, with the best recommendations 
for intelligence and capacity, she, in her new dress, 
applied for a situation as waiter at Gadsby^s Hotel 
in Washington city. This smart" and tidy-looking 
young man got instant employment; and now we 
have the lay sister in quite a different character. 
His intelligent countenance, — we must not say her 
in future, — soon attracted the notice of some of our 
most eloquent statesmen. He appeared so humble, 
so obedient and so unattentive to anything but 
his own business, that those senators on whom he 
waited, not suspecting that he had the ordinary curi- 
osity of servants in general, were entirely thrown 
off their guard, and in their conversations with one 
another seemed to forget their usual caution. Such 
in a short time was their confidence in him, that 
their most important papers and letters were left 
loose upon their tables, satisfied with saying, as they 
were going out, " Theodore, take care of my room 
and papers.'' 

Now the Jesuit was in her glory. Now the lay 
sister had an opportunity of knowing many of our 



332 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

national secrets, as well as the private characters of 
some of our eminent statesmen. Now it was known 
whether Henry Clay was a gambler; whether Daniel 
Webster was a libertine ; whether John C. Calhoun 
was an honorable but credulous man. Now it Avas 
known what value was put upon Popish influence 
in this country, and what were the hopes of Papist 
foreigners in the United States. In fact, this lay 
sister in male uniform, and but a waiter in Gadsby's 
Hotel, was thus enabled to give more correct infor- 
mation of the actual state of things in this country, 
through the General of the Jesuit Order in Rome, 
than the whole corps diplomatic from foreign coun- 
tries then resident at our seat of government. 

After relating to me in her sick room, — as the 
family in which she lived fancied it was, — all these 
circumstances, she deliberately said to me, " I want 
a written character from you. You must state in it 
that I have complied with my duty ; and as it is ne- 
cessary that I should wear a cap for a while, having 
cut off my hair, you must say that you visited me in 
my sick room, that I confessed to you, received the 
viaticum'^ and had just recovered from a violent fever, 
in which I lost my hair. My business is not done 
yet," said she. "I must go to New York, where the 
Sisters of Charity will find a place for me as wait- 
mg-maid." It is needless to say with what reluc- 
tance any man could comply with such a request as 
this ; and my having done so, is a stronger evidence 
than I have heretofore given of the indomitable 
strength of early education. 

The conduct of this emissary of Satan, was the 
embodyment of all that was iniquitous and dishon- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 333 

omble; it was a violation of every tie that holds 
society together; it was a part of a system of social, 
political, moral, public and private treachery, which 
no other being than a devil or a Jesuit could devise. 
Yet I was a Popish priest. My education, my pro- 
fession, my oath, compelled me to sanction it ; and 
I did sanction it. The lay sister retired to New 
York, put on her female dress, and daring some 
months following, acted as a chambermaid in sev- 
eral of the wealthiest Protestant families in that 
city. A few weeks after she obtained from me this 

character, the Rev. Mr. , (I will give his name 

in full if necessary,) President of the Jesuit college 
in Stonyhust, to which I have alluded, and where 
this demon, now in petticoats, was a lay sister, called 
on me in Philadelphia. We were old acquaintances, 
he being Vice President of the college of Maynooth 
for about twelve months. 

The misunderstanding between myself and the 
acting superior of the diocese of Pennsylvania, had 
just commenced, and my friend, the Jesuit, thought 
it his duty to call upon me. He hoped that I would 
abandon my schismatic course, — -I was not then a 
heretic, — and cease to circulate the Bible among the 
people. He never alluded to the lay sister during 
our whole conversation, though he was the very 
man who caused her to be sent out to this country, 
and the one who first procured her the situation of 
lay sister at Stonyhust. Both were relatives, and 
both natives of Dublin, in Ireland. 

Whether the relation of this circumstance will 
have the effect of putting Americans on their guard 



334 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

against Jesuits and nnns, I know not; and in truth, 
such IS their apathy on the , general subject of 
Popery, that I am tempted to say, I care not. My 
impression is, that until some attack is made upon 
an American's purse, and Popery becomes a ques- 
tion of dollars and cents, Jonathan will never be. 
roused from his apathy. So far as I know Amer- 
icans, as the antagonists of Popery, they will listen 
to no argument upon the subject, either in their na- 
tional councils or in their pulpits, except to the one 
great argument, the ^' Argumentum ad crumonam,^^ 
I will only say, ^^Qwi vult descipatur.'^^ 

It is unnecessary, I presume, to remark here, that 
the conduct of the modern fathers of the Popish 
church, in sending to this country the lay sister of 
whom I have been speaking, and encouraging her as 
a spy amongst our citizens, did not tend much to 
diminish my doubts about the veracity of the ancient 
fathers. 

Providentially, however, another circumstance oc- 
curred, which finally decided me. It is of so atro- 
cious a character, that if there were not several now 
living, who witnessed the whole transaction, I would 
scarcely mention it ; or if I did, it could be with little 
or no hope of being believed by Americans, although 
some money is mixed up with the affair. 

There lived in Philadelphia, about the year 1822 
or 1823, a gentleman of high character as a sea 
captain and otherwise. He commanded an East- 
Indiaman, belonging to one of the wealthiest houses 
m that city. One of the firm now lives there, 
though at an advanced period of life. This captain 
of whom I speak, was in the habit of visiting Balti- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 335 

more, whenever he returned from the East Indies. 
He was a remarkably fine-looking man, and believed 
to be worth from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. He shipped largely upon his 
own account, and was successful. 

While in Baltimore, he formed an attachment 
for a Roman Catholic lady of beauty, but no fortune. 

The Reverend Mr. K , the Stonyhust Jesuit, 

whom I mentioned, happened to be there during 
one of the captain's visits to that city, to see 
this lady. The Jesuit having discovered v/ho the 
captain was, what he was, and how much money 
he was worth, obtained an introduction to him from 
this Roman Catholic lady. He soon found that, 
like most men whose lives have been spent upon 
the sea, he was a frank, open-hearted man. A little 
further intimacy satisfied him, that he was deeply 
in love with this Popish lady. His course was now 
clear. The Jesuit serpent saw plainly that his prey 
was within striking distance ; that he need only coil 
himself into a proper attitude and spring upon it at 
his leisure. He represented to the captain, that the 
lady to whom he was paying his attentions was one 
of the most amiable and excellent of her sex ; highly 
approved of the captain's taste and judgment ; with 
many other such observations. The captain was 
more and more pleased with the object of his affec- 
tions, and urged his suit with increased assiduity. 
The Jesuit in the mean time was not idle ; his eye 
rested with a serpent-like fascinating gaze upon the 
movements and money of the captain. He had pri- 
vate interviews with the lady. He contrived to have 
her become his penitent^ and go to confession to him. 
15 



336 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

His contiol over her in future was boundless. She 
lost her identity as a member of society. She 
almost ceased to be a human being; a rational one 
she could not be. She became a thing, a mere thing 
to be shaped and moulded as her Jioly father the 
Jesuit directed. He spoke to her of the captain, of 
his great attachment to her, and recommended tc 
her to marry him, but on condition that he should 
become a Roman Catholic. He talked eloquently 
of the awful consequences of having a member of 
the infallible church unite herself to a heretic, 
whom she knew to be excommunicated and damned 
by the Pope and the hoi}?" church, as all heretics 
are, and finally obtained from the young lady a 
solemn promise that she should never marry her 
suitor, until he became a member of the church of 
Rome. 

When the captain next called to see her, the lady 
told him that she had one objection, and only one, to 
marrying him ; unless that was removed, she could 
never consent to do so ; and stated to him what that 
objection was. The unsuspecting and frank sailor, 
not ibeing a professor of any religion, and caring 
very little to what church he might go, replied, that 
he v/ould as soon be a Roman Catholic as anything 
else. All things were now arranged, except the 
formality of uniting with the Popish church. The 
Jesuit was sent for, and it was agreed that the mar- 
riage should take place in a few weeks, during 
which time the captain, under the direction of the 
Jesuit, was to prepare himself for confession ; a ne- 
cessary preliminary for joining the Popish church. 

It is a custom with Jesuits, and almost with all 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



337 



priests of the Romish church, to require of those 
who are about uniting with them, to go into what 
they call a retreat; viz. to enter into some retired 
or secluded place, where they will have an oppor- 
tunity of communing with themselves, without inter- 
ruption from the world or its busy citizens. The 
Jesuit recommended to his unfortunate dupe, the 

captain, to retire to convent, where he might 

be alone as much as he pleased, and where he would 
hear nothing but songs of praise to the Most High 
God, from blessed monks and nuns. 

The captain, according to orders, entered upon his 
retreat. Before I proceed further, I will observe that 
this captain, of whom I am speaking, had a remark- 
ably beautiful set of teeth, of which it was said he 
was extremely vain. He was not many days upon 
his retreat^ when symptoms of derangement became 
evident ; and one day, while under the influence of 
some natural or artificial cause — the reader may 
guess which — the unfortunate gentleman went down 
to Alexandria, called upon a dentist in that city or 
neighborhood, and insisted that he should pull out 
seven teeth from each jaw. In vain did the dentist 
remonstrate ; out they must come, and out they did 
come. 

The Jesuit hastened to Baltimore, called upon the 
lady who was engaged to be married, told her the 
captain was insane, beyond recovery, and that she 
should be thankful to the Virgin Mary, who caused 
this visitation in time to prevent her from being 
married to a madman. Judge you, Americans, of 
the feelings of this lady on that occasion, and say 
what ought to be the punishment of the incarnate 



^^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

fiend who occasioned them. The poor captain, 
though considerably recovered, continued to be par- 
tially deranged ; but it assumed a character of reli- 
gious gloom and melancholy. The Jesuit returned 

to , seeming to do all in his power to lighten 

the spiritual load which lay upon the captain's soul. 
He became his confessor, and soon persuaded him 
that the only way of saving his soul, was to convey 
to the order of Jesuits what property he possessed, 
and to become a Popish priest ; that he had a visit 
from the Virgin Mary, who ordered him to tell him 
— the captain — that he must take holy orders ; that 
there was a grand field opened for him to promote 
the cause of religion and the saints; that he must 
go forthwith to Philadelphia, where an infamous 
heretic called Hogan was spreading most damnable 
heresies. Will you believe it, Americans? It is 
drawing almost too heavily upon you to do so. He 
did come to Philadelphia, and preached against the 
heretic Hogan and Hogan ism, a fact which fifty 
thousand people now living there can attest. But 
quantum mutatus! When he left it some time be- 
fore, he was a happy, honorable and fine-looking 
man. He was wealthy, and he obtained his wealth 
by honest industry. But how was he now, the dis- 
torted shadow of what he was ; penniless, toothless, 
and a senseless fanatic, drugged into madness, and 
by whom 7 — by nuns, who act in the treble capacity 
of cooks, teachers, and prostitutes for Jesuits, This 
is harsh language indeed. Call it gross, if you please, 
reader ; but if you will figure to yourself for a mo- 
ment an honorable man, a native of these United 
States, a fine specimen of manly proportions and 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 339 

manly beauty, and then conceive this individual 
reduced to the condition to which I and thousands 
now living have seen this noble-hearted sailor of 
whom I have spoken, reduced, my language will 
appear neither harsh nor coarse. 

What ! must we call Jesuit assassins reverend 
gentlemen? Must we call robbers honest men? 
Must we call their accessories — nuns — ladies of vir- 
tue 7 Sympathizers may do so ; but I do not write 
for them alone. I write for men of sense ; I write for 
lovers of their God and their country ; I write not for 
advocates of Puseyism, or such exploded fooleries 
as they believe in. Whatever I say, is intended for 
those alone who have the capacity of distinguishing 
between common sense and mental vagaries, and 
who have the honesty to call things by their proper 
names. 

The first sermon which this unfortunate man 
preached against me in Philadelphia, was attended 
by crowds. Many had known him before he went to 
Baltimore. He was then universally popular, and on 
his return among them he was well received. His 
friends saw the change — the fatal change — which had 
taken place in his whole external configuration; but 
they knew not by what means it was effected. Some 
attributed it to self-denial, others to fanaticism, but 
none to the right cause. This was known only in 
the confessional ; and under all these circumstances, 
it may be easily supposed that his discourses against 
me, however unconnected they may be, however 
fugitive and irrelevant as a whole, had a powerful 
effect upon the public mind. 

Public sentiment, which up to this period sus- 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

tained me in my opposition to Popery, and in my 
efforts to circulate tlie Bible, now began to tlag. 
Popish priests and bishops went about industriously 
representing that this reverend convert to Popery was 
inspired ; reported that he had visits from saints and 
angels, attesting the fact of his inspiration. There 
was no difficulty in persuading a man of his shat- 
tered constitution and now weak mind, that such was 
the fact ; and he redoubled his efforts in trying to per- 
suade those who attended my church, and who were 
becoming readers of the Bible, never to do so again. 
His disordered mind often "saw me in hell, side by 
side with Luther, and the blessed Virgin spitting in 
our face." " He often saw me with Ignatius Loy- 
ola, who was breaking me on the rack as a pun- 
ishment for my heresies." The utterance of those 
wild rhapsodies were not without their effect ; almost 
all the poor Irish Papists believed them ; and it re- 
quired from me more bodily and mental labor than 
I was able to endure, to counteract the effects of this 
madman's rhapsodizing. 

I am now so well acquainted with the character of 
American Protestants, and even with American con- 
verts to the Romish church, that I know it is diffi- 
cult to persuade them that the Romish priests of 
Philadelphia, or other parts of the United States, 
were so utterly abandoned to degeneracy, as to give 
credence to these visions or visits from saints, which I 
have just spoken of But let them recollect that prac- 
tices upon popular credulity are now carried on, and 
were then carried on, upon as large a scale, as at any 
period in the existence of the Romish church. Such 
impositions are encouraged all over the world, even 



POPISH NUNNERIES. S4l 

at the present day. The wildest extravagances of 

intellect have circulated freely for the last thirty 
years in the world. Read Eugene Sue. He tells 
us of numerous instances of the kind. Read the 
last edition of Genin, page 82, and you will find 
an account of the Medal of the Immaculate Con- 
ception of the Yirgxn Mary, struck only the other 
day, 1838. Over two hundred thousand copies of this 
medal have been already sold. The story is this, as 
now vouched for by the most eminent holy fathers 
of the infallible church: — That the Virgin Mary 
showed herself to one of the Sisters of Charity in 
France, a branch of which holy sisterhood we have 
in this city of Boston, the capital of New England, 
and revealed to her the pattern of a medal to be 
struck for her ; the dress she was to appear in, and 
the kind of rings she was to wear. 

This medal has cured, and is now curing, accord- 
ing to the accounts we receive from the holy fathers^ 
all manner of diseases, such as paralysis, epilepsy, 
cancer, and, according to the belief of some Pusey- 
ite moral philosophers, it causes the blind to see, 
the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. A capital 
story is related of the potency of this medal. It is 
too good to be omitted, especially as many of my 
Puseyite friends believe it, and no doubt will be glad 
to hear it repeated. 

A Sister of Charity got acquainted with a married 
couple. The wife was a Papist of the most exem- 
plary character, obedient to holy Mother the church, 
and her confessor, in all things. The husband had 
no faith, especially in his wife's confessor. He 
drank, cursed and swore, '' like all possessed." The 



^"^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

holy Siste?^ of Charity^ seeing him at the point of 
death, and wishing to rescue his soul from hell, 
called to see him, and slipped one of these medals 
between the sheets of this wicked man's bed, and 
the next morning he gets up as well as ever and 
goes to confession. Another miracle which was per- 
formed by this medal in 1838, deserves notice, and 
may prove invaluable, if it finds its way into this 
country. One Marie Laboissiere, aided by her lover, 
murdered her husband, and forced her son to take 
part in the murder, to prevent him from being wit- 
ness against her. The lady and her lover Avere, 
however, arrested, tried, and found guilty of the 
murder. They appealed to a higher tribunal. Dur- 
ing the interval between the sitting of the higher 
and lower courts, one of the Sisters of Charity threw 
a medal round Marie's neck, and though the court 
and all saw that she was guilty, and ought to be 
judicially declared so, they could not do it. The 
medal would not let them, but obliged them to 
acquit her. If the reader will take into considera- 
tion that such visions as the Rev. Captain fancied 
he had, were matters of every-day occurrence with 
pious Papists, and that a belief in them is encour- 
aged and enforced by Popish priests and bishops 
everywhere, they will cease to be surprised that a 
man tortured into madness, as my reverend antag- 
onist was, should have visions such as those as- 
cribed to him ; nor will they wonder at the eifect of 
his preaching, upon a congregation principally com- 
posed of Irish and French Papists. 

I was alone, without a clerical friend ; not a Pro- 
testant preacher, with the exception of one, raised 



POPISH NUNxNERIES. 343 

his hand or his voice in my support. They seemed 
to like the fvn^ as some of them expressed it, 
amongst the Papists, — I suppose they considered 
me one then, — but XhQj came not to my aid. They 
appeared to me pretty much Uke the wife when 
she saw her husband fighting with a bear, and 
was expected to interfere, but very coohy rephed, 
'' I don't care Avhich of them gets hcked." 

Under these circumstances, I felt discouraged ; 
became utterly disgusted v/ith Popery and its infa- 
mous practices, with the holy fathers and their fool- 
eries, and resolved in future to have no more to do 
with Popery. I collected such volumes as I had of 
the holy fathers, piled them up into one heap, added 
to them the lives of the saints, and placing on the 
top of the pile the Pope's bull of excommunication, 
which the poor old man thought would frighten me 
out of my wits, I consigned them, book by book, 
volume by volume, together with the aforesaid bull, 
to the warm embraces of a good hickory fire. I 
knew the day Avas not far distant, when Americans 
would see something hesides fiin in Popish quarrels ; 
and in the mean time, 1 determined to employ myself 
in the study of Blackstone, Chitty, &c. ; a much 
more profitable employment, in a pecuniary point of 
view, than figliting in the cause of American Pro- 
testants with European Papists. 

It was said of Erasmus, that he laid the egg of 
the reformation, and that Luther hatched it. I trust 
it will not be deemed vanity in me to say that I have 
done as much for American Protestants, as Erasmus 
did in his day. At least, I have done all I could ; 
15* 



344 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

but whether they or any of them will do as Lutker 
has donCj time alone can decide. 

In this connection, it is not improper for me to 
state the ultimate fate of this reverend convert to 
the Romish church. After I retired from Philadel- 
phia, and Hoganism was put down, the Jesuits 
measurably neglected their convert ; a thing very 
unusual with them, to do them justice. He felt the 
loneliness of his situation. With a mind enfeebled 
by drugs, a correct view of his situation could only 
strike him by glances; but they were terrible and 
fearful. He saw himself robbed of the one be- 
loved object of all his earthly affections; plundered 
of a fortune, the fruit of honorable toil and industry. 
He saw in himself but the mutilated skeleton of 
what he once was, and the dupe of crafty Jesuits 
and licentious nuns. He shrunk from the view, and 
as if God, in his mercy, wished to hide it from him 
by means which may appear to us incomprehensi- 
ble, he fell into fits of real madness, from which he 
recovered but occasionally. The last I have heard 
of him v/as that he was arrested somewhere near 
Newcastle, Delaware, for attempting to commit a 
rape on a child nine years old; but the poor maniac 
was acquitted on the ground of insanity. Several 
priests were called as witnesses in his behalf; and 
well they may be witnesses. It was they that 
caused him to be what he was; it was they that 
maddened him. 

Those who are not familiar with crime, whose 
hands are unstained by blood, and whose consciences 
have not been seared and discolored by the black- 
ness of guilt, may hesitate to give credence to these 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 845 

disgusting details. Comparatively short as our na- 
tional existence is, and though brief the period since 
we cut loose as a nation from what we deemed the 
polluted governments of Europe, still there was a 
time, even in these United States, when such deeds 
as I have related would not and could not be be- 
lieved amongst us. There was a time when the 
ancient Romans did not think that there existed 
such a crime as patricide; and hence it is that there 
was no law against it. There was actually no pun- 
ishment known to their laws for the commission of 
such a crime ; and why, reader 7 Did the ancient 
Romans encourage their children to kill their parents, 
or to commit patricide? No. Far from it. No peo- 
ple in the world venerated their parents more than 
the Roman children of the day to which I allude. 
They had no law against the crime, because they 
did not believe it possible that such a crime could be 
committed. Nor is it to be wondered now, that 
many Americans should consider it almost impossi- 
ble that such deeds as I have laid to the charge of 
Jesuits and nuns, should be perpetrated amongst us. 
But time, that exponent of all things, will soon 
satisfy our people — as it did the Romans before us — ^ 
that there is nothing impossible, or even beyond the 
range of Jesuitical iniquity. The archives of Jes- 
uitical intrigue are now in a measure being thrown 
open to the world. The diffusion of literature is 
so general, and human curiosity, at the present 
period, so great, that nothing can escape its search- 
ing inquiries. It is therefore to be hoped that 
our people will not be much longer in ignorance 
of the iniquities of Jesuits. Americans can now 



346 AURICTTLAR CONFESSION AND 

learn from historical evidence, which admits of no 
doubtj that Jesuits have been expelled, successively, 
from thirty-nine different governments; they can 
also learn, that by intrigue, deception, perjury and 
poison, they have survived each and every one of 
those expulsions. They may see, — if they can see 
anything but money, — that the Jesuits are now 
making a final struggle for a settlement in this 
country; and if they are not so stupid as not to see 
that similar causes must produce similar events, 
they will infer that Jesuits, who have successively 
and effectually introduced disunion, discord, and 
disorganization into thirty-nine governments, cannot 
fail to do the same in ours. If by poison and assas- 
sination they have dethroned the rulers of other 
countries ; if by debauchery and superstition in the 
confessional, they have seduced their wives and 
daughters, can it be supposed that our rulers shall 
escape, our government be secure, or our v/ives and 
daughters safe from the daggers or subtle poisons 
of these notorious fiends 1 

Let any American take the "Wandering Jew," — 
let him read it attentively, and reflect that the writer, 
Eugene Sue, is a Roman Catholic now living in 
France, — and say whether there is any crime too dar- 
ing for a Romish priest or Jesuit. If he doubts what I 
relate of a young lady in the beginning of this book, 
who was debauched by a Romish priest, and poisoned 
by a nun, the mother abbess of a Jesuit seminary 
of learning, to get rid of her illicit offspring; let him 
see the history of Charlotte De Cordoville, in the 
Wandering Jew. He will see in the history of that 
young lady, distingv ished though she was for for- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 347 

tunCj beauty and charity, how she was reduced to 
misery and unhappiness, by the intrigues of Jesuits. 
You will see how her own aunt was made the 
instrument of all her misfortunes ; but the aunt was 
first made a Jesuit, and in that capacity she disre- 
garded honor, truth, the relationship of blood, and 
all the alliances of natural friendship. She caused 
her to be imprisoned and maltreated. She and her 
associate Jesuits caused herself and her lover to be 
poisoned or drugged into an insane stupor ; — all for 
the glory of the infallible church, and with a view 
of adding to its ill-gotten treasures. For a full ac- 
count of this transaction, see Eugene Sue. 

But Romish priests will not permit iheir people to 
read Eugene Sue ; it is a forbidden book ; his royal 
holiness, the Pope, has cursed the book and all who 
read it. He has cursed all who presume to discuss 
fairly the merits of Popery; but even this will 
scarcely be believed by Americans. Strange in- 
fatuation ! Will Americans read a report made to 
the French Chambers in Paris, by the Duke de Brog- 
lie, on the subject of public instruction and Jesuit- 
ism? Will they further read a small work written 
by Messrs. Michelet and Quinet, professors in the 
French national college 7 If they do, it may open 
their eyes to consequences which may be appre- 
hended from even tolerating Jesuits amongst us. 
They will see that Jesuits are the avowed enemies 
of liberal education, and that they are sustained in 
their opposition to it by the curses of the Pope. 

Professors Michelet and Quinet, in 1843, were dis- 
cussing, m public, the influence of the different reli- 
gious orders. They had, as we are told, commented 



348 AURICULAE CONFESSION AND 

Upon that of the Templars, and were speaking of the 
society of Jesuits, its origin and its interference in 
political affairs; and though the professors them- 
selves were Roman Catholics, though they lectured 
in a Roman Catholic country and to Roman Cath- 
olic people, under the sanction of a law of the land, 
yet Jesuits attempted to disturb those lectures, by 
creating an uproar among the audience; just what 
they are doing in this country. But what renders 
their conduct on this occasion more strange, is the 
fact, that the very existence of Jesuits, as a society 
is illegal in France. There is a law in France 
against secret associations, and under this law they 
cannot exist. How pregnant with instructions to 
Americans is this single historical fact ! A few years 
ago, Charles X. and his family had to fly from 
France, because, under the influence of Jesuitism, 
he violated his faith, he broke his royal word and 
oath to the people. The people of France hunted 
him and the Jesuits out of that country, as they 
would so many wild beasts. Such theyi was the 
indignation of Popish France against that infernal 
society, the Jesuits, that not one of them dared to 
show his face in the streets of Paris, without trem- 
bhng for his hfe. Like dastardly cowards, as all 
dishonorable and bad men are, — I never knew an 
exception, — these wretches moved about like beasts 
of chase, '' stealing from one cover to another;" the 
representatives of all that was base and dishon- 
orable ; the embodyment of all that was vile, false 
and treacherous : the incarnation, the sentiment and 
the sediment of all that was odious in fallen human- 
ity. But see them now, in 1843 and '44, and see 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 349 

the conduct of these very French people towards 
them. Though the law forbids their existence, 
they have the hardihood to interrupt the legitimate 
professors of the college of France, in their inquiries 
into the spirit and influence of Jesuitism; and they 
are supported by a portion of the very people, who, 
but a few years ago, pelted them with rotten eggs 
and dead cats, through the streets of Paris. And 
what effected this extraordinary change in popular 
sentiment? It is accounted for in various ways; 
but I contend that the only fair solution of the prob- 
lem is to be found in the fact, that republican, 
democratic North America has opened her hospi- 
table doors, and without suspicion, or without dream- 
ing that she was entertaining her deadliest foe, has 
spread her tables to feed, and opened her purse to 
build asylums for these scapegoats of the human 
family. 

In 1830, Jesuits were crushed in France ; they fled 
to the United States, collected together their broken 
phalanxes, told brothei* Jonathan they were a perse- 
cuted people, prevailed on him to build colleges for 
them, and they have risen again, not only in this 
land of the brave, but even in France, under the 
present king, Louis Philippe. 

But notwithstanding these truths, the inquiry is 
sometimes made, — the question has often been put 
even to myself, — '' Are there really any Jesuits in the 
United States?" " Do you believe that females are 
seduced into nunneries?" "Do you believe they 
attempt to tamper with our children or our wives?" 
I allude to the subject of privately tampering with 
the wives and daughters of Americans thus fre- 



^•^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

quently, because I think it is all-important thai 
they should thoroughly understand the dangers lo 
be apprehended from having any intercourse what- 
ever with Jesuits and nuns. Many a man asks this 
question, who accompanies it with saying, the nun- 
nery to which my daughter goes to school is not a 
Jesuit nunnery. The priest to whom my wife con- 
fesses is not a Jesuit. The priest to whom my 
daughter and servants go to confession is not, and 
never was, a Jesuit; and consequently there is no 
danger from this source. Many a man asks this 
question, and states these circumstances in good 
faith, and feels secure that all is right, as nothing 
in his opinion is to be feared but from Jesuits. 
This is a delusion. This man's wife is already 
governed by Jesuits through her confessor. It 
even happens sometimes that the confessor him- 
self is unconscious of the part he is acting. The 
confessor acts under the immediate advice of his 
bishop, to whom alone, in most cases, the Jesuits 
will entrust their plans, unless the confessor is per- 
sonally known to them; and unless the confessor 
professes ■ and solemnly swears to observe, — I use 
the words of the oath, — "obedience, courage, se- 
crecy, patience, craft, audacity, perfect union among 
ourselves, having for our country, the world; for our 
family, our order; for our queen, Rome." 

Few of the confessors in this country, except the 
bishops, are entrusted with the plans of the Jesuits; 
perhaps not ten, except they are of the Jesuit order. 
It is through those confessors, that many of our 
American youth, both male and f-emale, are seduced 
into Popish schools, where they become, with few 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 351 

•exceptions, spiritless, false, slaves of abject super- 
stition, and the victims of a superficial education. 
No time is given, no room left, as a modern writer 
expresses it, for the energies of the mind to develop 
themselves. No sustenance is provided to nourish 
the finer feelings of the heart. The intellect is 
checked, the flow of imagination is stemmed, and 
all the warm and generous affections of the soul are 
poisoned in their very bud. 

For an instance of the fatal consequence of such 
an education as this, I would call the attention of 
Americans, once more, to the Waudering Jew. See 
the effects of a Jesuitical education upon the noble 
and generous mind of Gabriel, the adopted son of 
the honest Dagoberth. What could be more lovely 
than the disposition of this young man. His senti- 
ments were as upright and as chaste as fallen 
humanity would permit. But the Jesuit society 
laid its impure hands upon him at an early period 
of life ; they persuaded his guileless adopted mother 
to go to confession, — not to a Jesuit, — but to a Cure 
of another order of priests; and the bishop of this 
Ciire gave him his instructions how to manage the 
mother of Gabriel. The bishop knev/ that this 
adopted son of the virtuous and craftless wife of 
Dagoberth, was one among other heirs of an im- 
mense estate, and he directed the Cure to prevail 
upon this simple woman, while at confession with 
him, to send Gabriel tc a Jesuit school, and have 
him become a Jesuit priest. Americans, read the 
sequel, and in that you will find a warning, stronger 
and louder than I can give you, never to send a 
child of yours to a Jesuit seminary. Let mothers 



352 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

read the history of Dagoberth's wife, and if. after a 
careful and honest perusal of it, they will again 
commit their daughters to the care of a nurse who 
goes to confession, I must only conclude that they 
are either infidels or mad, or both. " Qitem Deus 
vult perdere prius dewentat.^'' 

Ga,briel, — the virtuous and good Gabriel, — was 
nursed by Dagoberth's wife. From his infancy, it 
seems he had no inclination to become a Jesuit ; he 
appeared to have an innate aversion to the order of 
Jesuits; he struggled against uniting himself with 
them, as far as a sense of gratitude and a feeling of 
affection for his adopted mother, the nurse of his 
childhood, would permit. But all to no purpose; 
the mother was the dupe of her confessor. He was 
instructed to win over the youth by any and every 
means; and, with the advice and cooperation of 
Jesuits, the confessor of this really honest, but delu- 
ded woman, succeeded, by perseverance and in- 
creased fondness for her adopted child, in neutraliz- 
ing his aversion towards Jesuit priests. 

In an evil hour he joined them ; their traps were 
too well laid, and without being seen in the business 
themselves, they accomplished their iniquitous- pur- 
poses through the instrumentality of this affectionate 
and charitable woman. All was done through the 
confessional. How many similar cases have I wit- 
nessed myself, in the course of my life, but particu- 
larly while acting as a Romish priest in the con- 
fessional ! How often have I known some of the 
best of women, belonging to the Roman Catholic 
church, unconsciously made the dupe? of priests ! 
How often have I seen women, who, had they been 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 353 

properly educated, and under different circumstances, 
would be an honor to any religious denomination, 
made the instruments of all that was vile and liagi- 
tious, by Popish confessors ! How often have I seen 
Roman Catholic servant-maids in Protestant fami- 
lies, inveigled by their ghostly fathers, in the con- 
fessional, into treachery, deception and ingratitude, 
towards their employers and benefactors ! How 
often, as I have stated in my book on Popery, have 
these Roman Catholic servants stolen the infants 
from their Protestant mothers, and brought them to 
myself to be baptized ! 

There is now, in the state of Massachusetts, a 
young Protestant clergyman, distinguished for his 
talents and piety, an honor to his profession as a 
minister of the gospel, and to the state of Massachu- 
setts as a republican citizen, who was baptized by 
myself in Philadelphia, when acting as a Roman 
Catholic priest. The name of the gentleman and the 
date of his baptism were duly registered by me ; but 
the clerical Goths and Yandals, who succeeded me 
in St. Mary's church in that city, expunged the reg- 
ister which I kept, not deeming it safe to leave in 
existence, if possible, any records of the iniquities 
taught or practised in the Romish church. 

There are in all bodies and in all denominations 
of clergymen, certain individuals by whom it be- 
comes fashionable to get married and baptized; 
and during my residence in Philadelphia, I held 
rather a conspicuous place among them. The 
congregation of St. Mary's church was a large one. 
Notwithstanding my schismatic doctrines, — I was 
not then deemed a heretic, — crowds attended the 



354 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

church, and I believe, — though I cannot tell the exact 
number, — that I baptized more children than any 
clergyman in the city. Among these there were 
hundreds of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Metho- 
dists and Baptists, brought to me for that purpose, 
by their Roman Catholic nurses, without the knowl- 
edge or consent of their Protestant mothers. 

This has ever been the treacherous practice of the 
Romish church, from the days of Hildebrand down 
to the present moment. Dagoberth's wife is not a 
solitary instance of the undue influence which Ro- 
mish priests have over those women who go to 
confession to them. Show me the house of a Pro- 
testant family in the United States where there is a 
Roman Catholic, male or female, who goes to con- 
fession and communion in the Romish church, and I 
will show you a watch, a spy upon every act and 
deed and movement of that family. There is not a 
letter that comes into such a family, that is not 
watched by Popish servants. They soon know from 
whom it comes, or whether anything is to be gained 
by intercepting it. The confessor is immediately 
consulted, and it is ascertained, from some servant 
in the house where it was written or where it was 
received, what was its purport, or what it contained. 

This practice of domestic espionage^ we all know, 
is common in every country where auricular confes- 
sion is taught and practised; but it is carried on 
more generally here, in proportion to the number of 
Roman Catholics, than in any other country in the 
world; and the reason is obvious. It is said that 
Jews never cheat each other; this is not because 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 355 

they will not cheat as well as others. The reason is, 
they will not trust each other. They are always on 
the watch, or, as Yankees would express it, on the 
"look-out" for each other. Neither is it because 
other countries or other people are less disposed to 
indulge in this species of espionage than we are, that 
they have less of it : it is because Catholic countries 
and Catholics will not trust each other. They are 
on the qui vive in all matters of intrigue, whether in 
domestic or national affairs, whether in morals or 
politics. But poor Jonathan, with all his smartness 
and all his cleverness, is probably the most gullible 
biped that crawls upon this earth. I have known 
some poor servant-maids and servant-men, who did 
not seem to have an idea beyond a Hottentot, who. 
after one month's proper training in the confessional 
by a Romish priest, could wheedle them out of all 
they possessed, except their money ; and never have 
I known a Romish confessor, not even the simplest 
Reverend Yahoo from the bogs of Ireland or flats 
of Holland, who could not filch from them whatever 
money he wanted for any given purpose. 

The cunning of Americans, their knowledge of 
human nature and of things in general, cannot be 
mentioned in the same category with the craft and 
knowledge of man which Jesuit priests and confes- 
sors possess. This is exemplified even in the case 
of American missionaries. Send an American mis- 
sionary to France, to Spain, or to any Catholic 
country, and without aid from home he will starve. 
He has no Roman Catholic to come to confession to 
him. to give him money to build a church for him ; 
ho has no servant-maid or servant-man, through 



356 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

whom he can persuade, to give him ten or twelve 
dollars for saying mass ; no dying man or woman will 
send for him, and pay him well for taking out of his 

pockets a set oi oil stocks, for the purpose of greasing 
them over, commencing on the forehead, the tip of 
the nose, eyelids, the lips, the breast, the loins and 
the soles of the feet. He has no one to send for 
him and pay highly, for putting his hand in his 
breeches pocket and pulling out a box full of gods, 
viz., wafers made of flower and water, and giving 
him one of them. No. He has none of these re- 
sources; he starves amongst them until bread is 
sent to him from home. Talk of Yankee cunning ! 
He is a simpleton compared with a Jesuit. A Jesuit 
comes amongst us, or he goes to any Protestant 
country, without a dollar, bat he never travels with- 
out his jackals, male and female. He brings with 
him his Z«y sisters and his lay brothers ; they soon 
scent out prey for him ; they hire themselves, as ser- 
vant men and women, to Protestant Yankees, and 
the first intimation we have of a Jesuit missionary 
amongst us, is the alarm of some rich-toned bell, 
which we hear from the steeple of a church built for 
him by Protestant Yankees. In place of sending 
home for money to support him, as the American 
missionary has to do, a Jesuit is sending home 
money to pay the passage of others to come out and 
help him. He is purchasing some of the most valua- 
ble real estate that Protestant Yankees own, with 
Yankee money, and writes home to his royal holi- 
ness, the Pope, that Americans are a simple, gullible 
people. ''Persevere," says the Jesuit in America to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 357 

liis Pope; " aiready have you three millions of faithful 
troops from your own faithful allies of France and 
Spain and other Roman Catholic friendly govern- 
ments, among them. Besides this, holy father, your 
holiness will bear in mind that many of those Amer- 
ican heretics^ are deserting their own churches and 
joining us ; and above all, most holy father, you will 
remember, — and I pray you will graciously conde- 
scend to take note of it, — that these Americans are all 

politicians, all fond of offices and would kiss your 

as well as your toe, if your subjects will only aid them 
in keeping their offices, which, I am happy to inform 
your holiness, we are very willing to do, until we 
have numerical strength enough to turn all the heret- 
ical wretches out, and fill up their places with your 
faithful subjects. This, with the aid of the blessed 
Virgin Mary, we shall be able to accomplish in a 
very few years. Press on, most holy father; your 
subjects are coming in thousands per day. Send dis- 
patches to your royal brothers of Austria, Prussia 
and Spain ; urge upon them to send us help, and the 
glorious cause of your holy spouse, the infallible 
church, the Queen of heaven, will triumph. 

" Write to the greatest layman living , Daniel 
O'Qonnell, whom your holiness intends shall receive 
from your hands a crown as king of Ireland; urge 
upon him the necessity of sending over to the Unit- 
ed States all the repealers he can spare. Let him 
persuade the Irish, that the union was the cause of 
all their grievances, — that they would have nothing 
to complain of, if the U7iion were repealed. Let not 
your faithful son, D. O'Connell, ever allude to the 



358 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

fact, — the poor Irish would never dream of it, — that 
the union is not quite fifty years old, and that, for 
seven hundred years before its existence, the Irish 
were much more quarrelsome, clamorous, litigious 
than they are now. It Avon't do to let them know 
this ; repeal would lose all its charms, and the great- 
est layman Imhig; would become, — between you and 
myself and the holy Virgin Mary, — what he really 
is, the greatest scoundrel and the biggest poltroon 
living. These heretical Americans are trying to 
cause a division between your son Daniel O'Connell 
and your subjects. Poor dolts! How little they 
know about us. We know what we are about. 
Your son need only go regularly to confession, and 
attend mass in some public place, such as at a mass 
meeting of repealers, and nothing can separate your 
subjects from him. I trust the move which we 
made the other day in New York, through your 
faithful subject Lord Bishop Hughs, was highly 
satisfactory to your holiness. Your royal holiness 
will be graciously pleased to remember, that the first 
murmurings of repeal thunder, proceeded from the 
city of New York, through that humble, pious and 
zealous servant of the infallible church, the Loru 
Bishop Hughs. He was among the first to call 
the people together, and, under pretence of desiring 
repeal in Ireland, he told them to organize, to weigh 
well their own power and influence in the political 
balance. He advised them to give their support 
to no man but a repealer, and very judiciously in- 
structed his confessors in private, that it should 
be given only to those who were most favorable to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 359 

jroiir holiness' spouse, the infallible church. He 
succeeded well. The American heretics swallowed 
the bait ; the President of the United States for the 
time being, was the first political gudgeon he caught. 
Next followed two young spawns of his. They 
shouted repeal throughout the country. Your suh- 
jects promised to elect the three of them presidents 
in succession ; but when the hour of election came, 
as in duty and by oath of allegiance to your holiness 
bound, we acted as we thought would best serve 
the interest of our holy churchJ^ 

This may all seem like romance ; but is it so ? Do 
not facts within the knowledge and almost view of 
my readers, prove that it is the very reverse ? Who 
is there that does not know, that does not recollect, or 
that can forget the events a^d circumstances of the 
last election for President of the United States? 
Who is there that does not recollect the part, which 
repealers played in that election ? Can any man who 
has paid the least attention to passing events, for- 
get the conduct of Bishop Hughs of New York, or 
of Bishop Fen wick of Boston, or of any other bishop 
(Romish bishops) of the United States, daring the 
last political eventful year ? Who ordered the Irish 
Catholics to turn out with a banner bearing upon it 
the treasonable inscription, 

^''Americans shan t rule us^^l 
Bishop Hughs of New York. Did not a band of 
traitorous repealers, calling themselves democrats, 
parade the streets of New York, Buffalo and other 
cities, under the jurisdiction of the Lord Bishop 
Hughs, shaking this banner in the very faces of Amer- 
16 



860 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



lean citizens, hurraing for Daniel O'Connell ana 
repeal? Did not this bishop Hughs order several 
hundred stands of fire-arms to be placed in the Ro- 
man Catholic churches of New York, with a view 
of firing upon the citizens should they even dare to 
show any dissatisfaction, at these traitorous proceed- 
ings? Has not this Bisliop Hughs been in close 
correspondence v,dth the traitor O'Connell, ever since 
he sounded the first note of repeal? And is not 
this demagogue Hughs at this very moment cor- 
responding v/ith the confessors of Daniel O'Con- 
nell, and the other leaders of repeal in Ireland? 
Yes, I assert it, — he is. There is a continuous line of 
correspondence, as I have stated in my recent book 
on Popery, between the Propaganda in Rome, the 
Romish bishops of Ireland, Daniel O'Connell, and 
the Romish bishops of the United States. The 
Propaganda of Rome is the muddy and polluted 
source from which the various streams of treason, 
which are inundating our country, have proceeded. 
Their course is a sinuous one; their gyrations are in- 
tricate in the extreme. It takes in France, Austria, 
Russia, Switzerland, the Netherlands; in fact all 
civilized Europe, besides South America and Mexi- 
co ; its fountain in Rome, and emptying itself in the 
United Stales. Yet we now hear this Lord Bishop 
Hughs telling his subjects in New York and else- 
where, — telling what, my readers? — will you believe 
it, should I inform you ? Or will you not think me 
trifling with you, and sporting with a grave subject? 
He tells his subjects now, after doing all the mischief 
he could, after exciting family against family, after 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 361 

creating disunion, dissension and discord, after ex- 
citing peaceable fellow-citizens to imbrue their hands 
in each other's blood, that he entirely disapproves 
of Daniel O'Connell ; that he believes him a monarch- 
ist^ and that it is the duty of Papists to stand by the 
government that protected them. This is unques- 
tionably the boldest piece of impudence, and the 
most clumsy attempt at imposition upon the credu- 
lity of Americans, that has ever been attempted in 
this country. It ha« no parallel in the history of 
Popery in the United States ; and if ever there was a 
time or an occasion which calls upon Americans to 
vindicate their honor, and fling from them with 
indignation the imputation of being credulous dupes , 
now is the day and now is the hour. What is this 
insolent upstart Hughs, — who but the other day as 
another expresses it, " was pitchforked from the 
potato-field into a palace," — that he dares thus insult 
the common sense of the free-born citizens of Ameri- 
ca 7 He, a foreigner, a foundling for aught we 
know, nursed and fed by Jesuits into manhood, their 
slave and their tool, how dare he insult the very coun- 
try that gives him an asylum? how dare he outrage 
the feelings of the very people that give him bread 
to eat, and clothes to his back ? I will give you, 
Americans, some idea of who he is, and who his 
brethren of the Popish mitre are. They are individ- 
uals — and the Lord Bishop Hughs is preeminently 
conspicuous among them, — who, stript of the false 
splendor which circumstances and place throw 
around them ; who, if deprived of the drapery and 
mimic glmes of Popery, in which holy mother, 



362 AURICULAE CONFESSION AND 

the church, has enveloped them, would appear 
among the meanest and most despicable members 
of society. Such men may be borne with, while 
they abstain from insulting the common sense of the 
people; but when their arrogance, insolence and 
vanity presume to trample upon the rights of the 
people, and ridicule the understanding of the com- 
munity, they deserve something more than commis- 
eration. 

When, in the plenitude of their vanity, they cease 
to be content with the profits of oflace and the 
free exercise of their religion, and dare insinuate 
aught disrespectful to the understanding of their 
benefactors, they cease to be objects even of tolera- 
tion. In ages of ignorance, the trappings of Popery 
may strike with aAve. Those ages are gone by ; and, 
if Americans are true to themselves, they will never 
revive in this country, notwithstanding the insolent 
efforts of this Lord Bishop Hughs. This reverend 
bully has long bid defiance to the unarmed argu- 
ments of Americans. He will not condescend to 
listen to the American theologian, who brings into 
the arena of religious controversy, truth without a 
sword, and fair argument unbacked by bowie-knives 
and clubs ; he will not stoop to such a mode of war- 
fare. No. This clerical rake would, if he could, 
Gothicize this nation of freemen. He would extin- 
guish, if he could, among Americans, the light of 
[earning and philosophy. Nay, he would, and he 
has been trying to, raise from the putrid pools of 
ignorance and superstition, fogs and evaporations, 
and clouds and mists, sufficiently thick to hide from 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 363 

the eyes of Americans the pure, the brilliant, and 
the glorious light even of the Bible itself It is not 
enough for him that his subjects should consider him 
their official superior ; it is not enough that some 
poor foreigners, — and 1 blush to own it, — even Amer- 
icans, should look upon him and his brethren as 
their superiors in the church, but they are required 
also to consider them their superiors in wisdom and 
virtue, though they know them to be Jesuits. Papists, 
whether foreigners or Americans, are, even in the 
United States, little better than living automatons 
and self-acting tools, for the corrupt agents of his 
royal holiness, the Pope. 

Can this be 7 the reader will say. Can it be, that 
man, created a free agent, living in a free country, 
and governed by equal laws, — can he be made to 
obey the word of command given by a Popish 
bishop, as a wild beast would the lash or the whip 
of the keeper of a menagerie ? It is so, reader ; and 
particularly with every human being, male or female, 
who goes to confession. I care not how intelligent 
he may appear to be, or what his acquirements or 
accomplishments may be ; if he is weak enough, fool 
enough, or hypocrite enough and mean enough to go 
to confession to a Romish priest, he deserves not the 
name of a freeman. He who bends the knee to a 
Romish priest, and asks him to forgive his sins, 
submitting to such restrictions or discipline as the 
priests may be pleased to impose upon him, becomes 
a degenerate being. Take, for instance, a bird, one 
of the feathered citizens of the open air ; take a lion, 
a proud denizen of the boundless forest; compare 



364 AURICULAR COx\FESSlON AND 

him with one of those tamed, broken-down and 
whipped into obedience, by the keeper of a mena- 
gene,'^and how strongly, how painfully marked is 
the contrast. Their very looks bespeak their degra- 
daiion. How great is the contrast between those who 
have broken loose from obedience to nature's laws, 
to the degrading servitude of obedience to man. 
But the contrast is not greater nor their fall more 
humiliating, than that of the man or woman, who 
exchanges that obedience which he or she owes to 
reason, to pure religion, and the divine law of the 
gospel, for the degraded servitude required from 
them by Popish priests and confessors. 

Let us suppose a whole people thus tamed, thus 
broken, thus snaffled, bitted and bridled by skilful 
Popish riders and Jesuit jockeys, will they not soon 
lose all ideas of liberty, morals a,nd individual man 
liness 1 Will they not soon be ready to exclaim, in 
the language of inspiration, "Why died I not from 
the womb 7" 

But let us return to the Lord Bishop Hughs, of 
New York, and his sudden conversion from repeal 
and O'Connellism. As I have stated before, it is the 
boldest stroke that ever has been made to deceive a 
whole nation. Nothing equal to it, that I know of, 
in modern history, except perhaps, it may be that 
of the Jesuit Rodin, which we find related in the 
Wandering Jew. The only difference between the 
Jesuit Hughs and the Jesuit Rodin, is this, — that 
Rodin's audacity, hypocrisy and treachery, were 
practised on a small scale, when compared with that 
of this modern Jesuit, Lord Bishop of New York. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 3^5 

There is, however, a strong similiciide between these 
two illustrious individuals. I need not inform my 
readers. — as I believe they have all read the Wan- 
dering Jew, — that Rodin was a Jesuit, commissioned 
by tlie society of Jesuits in Rome, to act as its agent, 
with full powers to secm'e for the society of Jesus, 
£,s it is nicknamed by them, an immense estate, be- 
longing, in law and in justice, to a French family of 
the name of Rennepont. He was empowered to 
secure this property to the society, but he must use 
no violence. It must be done solely by the play of 
action^ hypocrisy and deception. The reader will 
remember, as we are informed in the Wandering 
Jew, that the Rennepont family had to fly from 
France, after the king of that country, at the insti- 
gation of the Pope, and by a violation of the most 
solemn compact, had broken the edict of Nantz, 
which secured to the Protestants the quiet possession 
of their property. After fighting their way through 
blood and Popish butcheries, this noble family, with 
thousands of others, had to fly from their homes, 
friendless and pennyless. Only a few escaped the 
bloodhounds of Popery. Their v/ives and daugh- 
ters were dishonored, and, as we v/ere told upon 
good authorit]^, their helpless infants were dashed 
against the corners of houses, and their brains scat- 
tered upon the pavements. Nothing was left them. 
They had to seek refuge in distant lands ; they went 
east and west, north and south. Many of their de- 
scendants are now living in some of the Southern 
States of this confederacy. 

The general of the Jesuit order in Rome discov- 
ered that some of the descendants of the Rennepont 



366 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

family had survived the disasters of the times, and 
held in their possession proofs sufficient to estabUsh 
Claims to their patrimonial rights. The Jesuits 
determined to defeat them, and if the reader's curi- 
osity induces him to learn by what means they 
endeavored to do so, and what agents they employed 
to effect it, let him read the account given of the 
whole transaction in the Wandering Jew, by that 
inimitable writer, Eugene Sue. They will find in 
that work proofs of the wickedness of Jesuits. They 
will find that auricular confession is something even 
worse than I have described it. I have not talent to 
give a sufficiently accurate picture of this diabolical 
Popish invention. 

Lord Bishop Hughs has been for several years 
lecturing through the State of New York, as every 
man who has read the leading newspapers of the 
country must know; he has represented O'Connell 
as one of the greatest and best men of the day, and 
one of the most persecuted of men. by the British 
government. O'Connell and genuine Popery are 
almost synonymous terms with this lord bishop. As 
I have stated above, he tried to enlist, — and has 
actually succeeded, — all foreign Papists, and a vast 
number even of Americans, in the cause of O'Con- 
nell and Irish repeal. Wherever this lord bishop 
went, dissension and anarchy followed in his train ; 
but mark him now. Mark the course of this Bishop 
Hughs for the last few yea.rs, and you will be struck 
with the exact similitude which in every feature 
exists between itself and that of Rodin. The read- 
ers of the Wandering Jew will recollect that Rodin 
established a press in Paris, for the ostensible pur- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 367 

pose ot inculcating truth, and advancing the public 
good. The title of this press was, "Love your 
NEIGHBOR." The editor was one Nini-Moulin, a 
notorious drunkard, ignorant and profligate in 
the extreme, and, personally, irresponsible, either 
in a pecuniary or moral point of view. If sued 
for any libellous matter contained in this press, 
nothing could be recovered from him, because he 
had nothing. If thrown into jail for the immorality 
of the act, he could not suffer in his reputation, be- 
cause he had none to lose; he may continue editor 
still, and all that was necessary, was that Rodin 
should supply him v/ith something to eat and drink. 
For the amusement of my readers, I beg to give a 
brief description of the editor of Rodin's paper. I 
take it from that given by one who knew him, who 
was the mistress kept by this editor of Rodin's 
paper, one Rose-Pompon. She thus describes the 
editor — " A face as red as a glass of red wine, and a 
nose all covered with pimples, like a strawberry." 
Rodin, describing him, gives a different character 
altogether. He says that "Nini-Moulin is a very 
worthy man, though, perhaps, a little fond of plea^ 
sure.'''' Here is a precious specimen of Jesuitism 
and Popish morality; a man living notoriously with 
a woman of the town, bearing upon his face the 
marks of drunkenness and profligacy, is pronounced 
by a Romish priest to be a very worthy man^ though 
perhaps a little fond of pleasure. 

Suppose Rodin and Nini-Moulin were amongst us 
here, in the city of Boston, or in the city of New 
York, — who is there that would not shrink from a 
16* 



368 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

contact with either? The Jesuit Bishop Hughs, of 
New York, and his brother Fenwick, of Boston, have 
presses in each of those cities, and the wretches who 
ostensibly conduct them, are, in point of fact, of no 
higher or more worthy character than Rodin's edi- 
tor, Nini-Moulin. No man, who opposed Jesuitism 
in Paris, or who was even suspected of being inim- 
ical to it, escaped the abuse of Rodin's journal. 
The fairest characters were blasted by it; it de- 
famed and bespattered with its scurrility, some of 
the most honorable and high-minded citizens, while 
the artful and cowardly hypocrite himself was hid- 
den from observation. Is it not so with Hughs, of 
New York, Fenwick, of Boston, and the whole tribe 
of Popish bishops throughout the United States'? 
No man is safe, no character is spared from the 
virulence of the presses which they own. Witness 
the Truth Teller, of New York, owned by Bishop 
Hughs, — though, like Rodin, he denies the owner- 
ship of it, — what can be more vile than the language 
of that press? It declares that ^^ Americans shan^i 
rule us — Papists.''^ It has for years been spewing 
forth its malicious tirades against Protestant Amer- 
icans, while the real author of this scurrility. Bishop 
Hughs, is skulking behind the bush. 

But I will tear off that masquerade dress which 
nides the moral deformities of this man ; and I trust 
that all Protestants will sustain and pardon me, in 
holding him, and not the Nini-Moulins who con- 
duct his press, responsible for its contents. Let no 
Protestant notice the miserable beings who are the 
reputed editors of the Truth Teller, Bishop Hughs' 
organ ; let the bishop himself be held responsible 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 369 

The Jesuit bishop of Boston, Fenwick, another 
Kodin, has also a press called the Pilot^ apparently 
edited by a silly-looking, Irish jackanape. Let not 
Bostonians notice the abuse which this paper has 
lieaped upon them for years; or if they do, let them 
hold Bishop Fenwick responsible for it; he is the 
real author of its contents, and not the little brain- 
less gander, its reputed editor. 

I might quote a thousand instances of the similar- 
ity of thought and deeds which governed, and which 
now govern, the whole body of Romish priests. But 
enough. It is time that Americans should vindicate 
their honor. 

Having done all the mischief he could, havmg 
inflicted upon the peace of our country a wound, 
which, in all probability, can never be healed, he 
adroitly turns round, — ^just as the hypocritical vil- 
lain Rodin, the Jesuit, did, — and tells Americans 
that he was wrong in supporting O'Connell ; that 
he can support him no longer, because the said 
O'Connell is a monarchist Let us try and recon- 
cile this with the solemn oath of this vaporing 
Jesuit and canting patriot, Hughs. The following 
is an extract from the oath which, as a Popish 
bishop and a Jesuit, he took at his ordination and 
consecration : 

" Therefore, to the utmost of my power, I shall 
and will defend this doctrine, and his holiness' 
rights and customs, against all usurpers of heret- 
ical or Protestant authority whatsoever; especially 
against the now pretended authority and Church of 
England, and all adherents, in regard that thev 
and she be usurpal and heretical, opposing the sa- 



370 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

cred mother church of Rome. I do renounce and 
disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, 
prince, or state named Protestant, or obedience to 
any of their inferior magistrates or officers. I do 
further declare the doctrine of the Church of Eng- 
land, and of the Calvinists, Huguenots, and of other 
of the name Protestants, to be damnable, and they 
themselves are damned, and to be damned, that will 
not forsake the same. I do farther declare, that 
I will help, assist, and advise all, or any of his holi- 
ness' agents in any place, wherever I shall be, in 
England, Scotland and Ireland, or in any other 
territory or kingdom, I shall come to ; and do my 
utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestants^ doc- 
trine^ and to destroy all their pretending j)owers, 
regal or otherwise. I do further promise and de- 
clare, that notwithstanding / am dispensed with to 
assum^e any religion heretical for the propagation of 
the mother church's interest, to keep secret and pri- 
vate all her agents' counsels from time to time, as 
they intrust me, and not to divulge, directly or indi- 
rectly, by word, writing, or circumstance whatsoever, 
but to execute all that shall . be proposed, given in 
charge, or discovered unto me, by you my ghostly 
-father, or by any of his sacred cunvent. All which, 
I, A. B., do svv^ear by the blessed Trinity, and 
blessed Sacrament, which I am now to receive, to 
perform, and on my part to keep inviolably ; and do 
call all the heavenly and glorious host of heaven to 
witness these my real intentions to keep this my 
oath." 

Now, Mr. Bishop, suppose you and I reason to- 
gether for a moment. Either this oath is binding 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 371 

upon your lordship or it is not. If the former, as- 
suredly you can have no reasonable objection to 
supporting O'Connell, either as a monarchist ^ or as 
your ally in defending the rights and jirerogatives 
of his royal holiness the Pope. If the latter, that is, 
if it is not binding on you, — if you will not defend the 
Pope's power^ his throne and his prerogatives, — say 
so like an honest man. Until you do this, we must 
look upon your denunciations against O'Connell, as 
the veriest farce that ever was enacted by the veri- 
est mountebank scoundrel that ever filched a dollar 
from the pockets of Americans. Will you dare 
stand before me, and tell me that the Pope of Rome is 
not himself a monarch ? Will you dare look me in 
the face, and say that you would not support him? 
Will you dare look me in the eye, and say that you 
would not support his government? Recollect that 
I understand the mysteries of Popery as well as you 
do ; remember that I have studied its doctrines more 
deeply than ever you had an opportunity of doing ; 
and I experience not the least emotion of vanity, 
when 1 assure your Jesuit lordship that I am a 
much better general scholar than you are. You will 
therefore be cautious in future ; I will watch you in 
your ecclesiastical and political gyrations, and when- 
ever you assert what is false in morals, or danger- 
ous to the institutions of my adopted country, I will 
check you, and that with no gentle hand ; though I 
shall do unto, you and your brethren, but that 
which 5^ou and your brethren have done unto me. 
The truth is, Mr. Bishop, you are an overrated man, 
an inflated humbug, and probably you would have 
passed for a learned one, had you not, without pro- 



372 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

vocation, interfered with me. You, a Popish bishop, 
tell Americans, that you cannot support a monar- 
chist! Have you ever read the works of Sahiieron, 
a Jesuit like yourself, but a theologian of learning, 
which you are not? Either he was a liar, or you 
are one. Listen to what he says of his monarchy 
the Pope. " The Pope has supreme power over all 
the earth ; over all kings and governments, and if 
they resist he must punish them." Salmeron was a 
native of Toledo, and was so thoroughly orthodox 
in Popish belief, that he wrote several commentaries 
on the Scriptures, which were approved of by the 
infallible church. He died only about two hundred 
years ago. Can you blush, my Lord Bishop ? Either 
you think Americans an extremely ignorant people, 
and unable to discern between flippancy, repeal gab, 
and solid historical information, or you must blush 
at your attempt to impose upon them. The veriest 
child in knowledge of ecclesiastical history, knows 
that the Pope is~ king and monarch of Rome, and 
that you are sworn, by the most fearful oath, to 
support him and his government in opposition to 
all others ; and yet, forsooth, you cannot support 
O'Connell because he is a monarchist. 

Have you, my Lord Bishop Hughs, ever read the 
life of Pope Adrian ? Was he not a monarch 7 Was 
he not, to use his holiness' own words, the mon- 
arch "of all the islands upon which the sun hath 
shone?" Are you ignorant of this fact, Mr. Bishop? 
I beg leave to instruct you upon the subject, by sub- 
mitting to your lordship and to the poor, unfortu- 
nate Irish Catholics, whom you are leading blindly 
by the nose in every species of mischief and error, 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 373 

the following bull sent by the aforesaid P^pe Adrian, 
to Henry the IL, in the year eleven hundred and 
fifty-four. You will see from this bull^ that Pope 
Adrian was a monarchy and I believe it is not usual 
with you or your brother bishops, to admit that there 
was ever any change in the power or prerogatives 
of the Popes, from the days of St. Peter down to the 
present moment. 

'^ Adrian, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to 
his dearest son in Christ, the illustrious king of 
England, health and apostolical benediction. Full 
laudably and profitably hath your magnificence 
conceived the desire of propagating your glorious 
renown on earth and completing your reward of 
eternal happiness in heaven, while, as a Catholic 
prince, you are intent on enlarging the borders of the 
churchy instructing the rude and ignorant in the tridh 
of the Christian faith^ exterminating vice from the 
vineyard of the Lord ; and for the more convenient 
execution of this purpose, requiring the counsel and 
favor of the apostohc See. 

" There is indeed no doubt, as your highness also 
doth acknowledge, that Ireland and all the islands 
upon which Christy the sun of righteousness^ hath 
shone^ do belong to the patrimony of St. Peter and the 
holy Roman church. Therefore are we the more 
solicitous to propagate in that land the godly scion 
of faith. 

''You, then, most dear son in Christ, have signified 
to us your desire to enter that land of Ireland, in 
order to reduce the people to obedience unto laws 
and extirpate the seeds of vice. You have also de- 



374 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

clared that you are willing to pay for each house a 
yearly pension of one penny to St. Peter. 

" We, therefore, with that grace and acceptance 
suited to your pious and praiseworthy design, and 
favorable assenting to your petition, do hold it right 
and good, that, for the extension of the borders of 
the church, the restraining of vice, the correction of 
manners, the planting of virtue ^nd increase of reli- 
gion, you enter the said island and. execute therein 
whatever shall pertain to the honor of God and the 
welfare of the land ; and that the people of said land 
receive yon honorably and reverence you as their 
lord. 

" If, then, you be resolved to carry this design into 
effectual execution, study to form the nation to vir- 
tuous manners ; and labor, by yourself and by others 
whom you may judge meet for the work, in faith, 
word and action, that the church may be there ex- 
alted, the Christian faith planted^ and all things so 
ordered for the honor of God and the salvation of 
souls, that you may be entitled to a fulness of 
reward in heaven, and on earth to a glorious renown 
throughout all ages." 

Does it not appear, Mr. Bishop, from the above 
hull^ that Pope Adrian was a monarch? And do 
you dare condemn your predecessors in office for 
supporting him as such, or for being themselves 
monarchists? I opine you would not. 

Pope Adrian was an Englishman, and the only 
one who ever filled the office of Pope. The succes- 
sor of Adrian in the popedom was a native of 
Sienna, and a temj)oral monarch as well as Adrian. 
He gave away kingdoms and crowns, as did alJ pre- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. STf 

ceding and successive popes ; and yet your lordship 
will not pretend to say that they did wrong. You 
dare not do it It would cost you your mitre, and 
the other paraphernalia with which the holy church 
has befooled and bedizened your sacred person. Let 
me give you an instance of the manner in which 
some of the holy popes have disposed of whole 
kingdoms. I might give many, but I shall content 
myself with one for your special edification, and that 
of your deluded followers, the Irish in particular. 
The following is the bull of Pope Alexander, the 
successor of Adrian, confirming his transfer of the 
kindom and people of Ireland to Henry the second, 
king of England, in the year 1555. 

" Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of 
God, to his dearly beloved son, the noble king of 
England, health, grace and apostolical benediction. 
Forasmuch as things given and granted upon good 
reason by our predecessors are to be well allowed 
of, ratified and confirmed, we, well pondering and 
considering the grant and privilege for and concern- 
ing the dominioji of the land of Ireland to us apper- 
taining and lately given by our predecessor^ Adrian^ 
do in like manner confirwj^ ratify and allow the same ; 
provided there be reserved and paid to St. Peter, 
and to the church of Rome, the yearly pension of 
one penny out of every house both in England and in 
Ireland ; provided, also, that the barbarous people of 
Ireland be by your means reformed from their filthy 
life and abominable manners, that, as in name so in 
conduct and conversation, they may become Chris- 
tians ; provided, further, that that rude and disor^ 
dered church being by you reformed, the whole na- 



378- AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

tion may, together with the profession of the laith, 
be in act and deed followers of the same." 

The above bulls are recorded in the archives of 
the Roman Church, in Ireland. They were pub- 
licly read at a Roman Catholic Synod held in the 
Cathedral of Cashal, in Ireland, Anno Domini 1171, 
and are now to be found in almost every history of 
Ireland, that has ever been written since. But not- 
withstanding these historical facts, the poor Irish 
are told that they are indebted to the church 
of Rome, even for their nationality. We have in 
this very city of Boston, a poor moonstricken 
changeling, and would-be philosopher, who has 
recently been hired by the Jesuit Bishop Fenwick, 
to make such an assertion, and the Irish Catholics 
to a man believe him. Unfortunate people ! How 
long will you remain the dupes of popes, bishops, 
priests and their agents 7 

Come out from among them; fly from the darkness 
of Popery ; " come out of that deadly shade, and 
seat yourselves with us in God's own sunlight." 

The Liord Bishop Hughs of New York, finding that 
it would not answer his purpose to support O'Con- 
nell any longer, and feeling that he made his spring 
too violently and too soon ; knowing that he fell far 
short of his leap, he turns round, like the Jesuit 
Rodin, and tells Americans that he was altogether 
mistaken in the course he pursued, and that he was 
truly their friend ; that they should rule, and by right 
ought to rule, and that he and his subjects would be 
the first to aid them against England, or O'Connell. 
Well done, Mr. Bishop. Impudent and barefaced as 
your assertion is, more treacherous and false than 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 377 

even the Jesuit Rodin as you are, I have not the least 
doubt but you will succeed. 

It is curious to observe the similarity of sentiment 
and action which govern Jesuits, hoAvever far apart 
they may be. We know from the Wandering Jew, 
that the Jesuit Rodin, for several years, never ceased 
to pursue and persecute the orphan descendants of 
the Rennepont family. He commenced his persecu- 
tion of them in Siberia ; he scented their track with 
the keenness of a bloodhound, from that to Dresden. 
In Dresden, as we are told, he had a fresh pack of 
bloodhounds, who fell upon the innocent twin or- 
phans of an exiled father, and protected only by a 
faithful French trooper. It is impossible to read the 
account given by Sue, of the ill-treatment which 
these children and their protector received from a 
ferocious brute, named J^/Iorok, a lay Jesuit brother 
during the time they remained at the " White Fal- 
con Inn," Vv^ithout strong emotions of pity and com- 
miseration. From this they were pursued by the 
Jesuit Rodin, by different agents and by different 
means, which the reader will find beautifully delin- 
eated in the Wandering Jew, until their arrival in 
Paris. 

Here, it will be seen, that new plots were formed, 
and new schemes devised, to defeat their just claims 
to their paternal inheritance, by keeping them in total 
ignorance that any such claims were ever in existence. 
Unfeeling, indeed, and cold as the marble slab which 
covers the house of the dead, must be the heart of 
that man or woman, who could unmoved witness 
the sufferings of these helpless orphans and the faith- 
ful servant, Dagoberth, while in the city of Paris j all 



378 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

brought upon them by Jesuit priests and Jesuit 
nuns, — fiends, vipers, vampires in human shape, 
All their movements were watched and betrayed, 
through the confessional. But the eye of the Lord 
seemed to rest upon them in a most extraordinary 
manner. It would be wrong to diminish, by antici- 
pation, the pleasure which my readers may find in 
reading for themselves this part of the Wandering 
Jew. Let us, therefore, pass on to Rodin, the Jesuit, 
and prototype of the Lord Bishop Hughs of New 
York. Rodin, finding that all his plans and schemes, 
in trying to possess the vast estates of the Rennepont 
family, were likely to fail, and would inevitably be 
frustrated, unless some new scheme were devised, 
retired within his own room, deliberated on what 
was best to be done, and suddenly springing from 
his chair, thus soliloquized with himself: 

" Never have I had better hopes of success, than 
at this moment; the stronger reason for neglecting 
nothing. A new thought struck me yesterday. We 
Avill act here in concert. I have it, — an ultra Cath- 
olic journal, called ^Love your neighbor as yourself.'* 
It will be deemed the organ of Rome. / will orig- 
inate the question of the liberty of teaching. The 
common liberals will support us. — the idiots. They 
admit us to common rights, when our privileges, our 
immunities, our influence through the confessional^ 
our obedience to Rome, — all put us beyond the pale 
of common rights, of the very advantage which we 
enjoy. Double idiots! They fancy us disarmed^ 
because they know themselves to be disarmed towards 
us. That is as I would have it.'" 

This is precisely the course which the Jesuit 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 379 

Hughs, of New York, has pursued towards Amer- 
icans. Rodin immediately acted upon the new idea 
which occurred to him ; he wrote to the general of 
the .Jesuit order in Rome, who immediately advised 
him to cease apparently from further persecuting the 
heirs of the Rennepont inheritance; to avow him- 
self their warmest friend, and to denounce all those 
who attempted to injure them in any way, as plot- 
ters against their rights and their happiness. Having 
a previous understanding with his co-laborers in in- 
iquity, he denounced every one of them, and by this 
act of apparent friendship and justice, he wormed 
himself into the undivided confidence of all who here- 
tofore looked upon him with fearful suspicion. Just 
so is Bishop Hughs trying to worm himself into the 
confidence of Americans, by assuring them that he 
disapproves of the treachery of O'Connell, and by 
recommending to his subjects and his dupes, in New 
York and elsewhere, to assemble in public, and de- 
clare that they are opposed to O'Connell's move- 
ments in Ireland, and that they are the friends of 
the United States ; and accordingly we find that on 
Monday, the 16th of the present month, June, 184.5, 
a meeting was called by the tools of the aforesaid 
Bishop Hughs, for the ostensible purpose of express- 
ing their disapprobation of O'Connell, the Pope's 
tool, in Ireland. The bishop, knowing that the bit- 
terest feelings have been aroused in the bosoms of 
Americans, at seeing Papists forming associations 
throughout the length and breadth of this land, and 
collecting vast sums of money, to be transmitted to 
Ireland, not for the purpose of feeding the half- 
starved population of that unfortunate country; not 



380 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

to clothe the almost naked peasantry of that un- 
happy land ; not to relieve from bondage and worse 
than Siberian slavery, a people naturally brave and 
generous, but to pamper and to forward the plans of 
a roaring, brawling demagogue and coward, Daniel 
O'Connell. 

Tbo least observant among us, is aware that the 
scenes of bloodshed, which have been witnessed in 
this country, may be traced to those associations, 
which that Irish Jesuit, Bishop Hughs, has fanned 
into existence, by his inflammatory appeals to the 
worst passions in the hearts of his people; and now, 
alas ! too late, — even if he were serious, — he at- 
tempts to extinguish the flame which he has kindled. 
But I tell you, Americans, he is not serious. If you 
depend upon his professions, you will be deceived. 
He is sworn, on the most fearful oath, to support the 
power, the kingdom and the jurisdiction of the Pope 
of Rome, over all kings, potentates, slates and mag- 
istrates. Neither are his subjects in this country 
sincere; and that very Bishop Hughs, — I accuse 
him of it in the face of the world, — I accuse him of 
it on the authority of the Roman Catholic church, 
of which I have been a priest myself, — teaches those 
very people, that any oath of allegiance which they 
have sworn to this government, is null, void and of 
no eflect. When I was a Roman Catholic priest, it 
was my duty to absolve from their oath of alle- 
giance, all those who came to confession to me. 
While a priest, I instructed the Irish to swear alle- 
giance to the heretical government of the United 
States ; but with a mental reservation, that the first 
allegiance was due to the Pope of Rome. Every 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 381 

Roman Catholic, who goes to confession to a Romish 
priest, is a mere poUtical automaton, not to be trusted 
hy a Protestant, or Protestant government, further 
than either would trust the priest to whom he con- 
fesses ; and how far a Romish j)riest merits the confi - 
dence of an American Protestant, time will tell. 

The tools of Bishop Hughs, of New York, at Tam- 
many Hall, June 16th, 1845, passed the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, That there are thousands in this coun- 
try, (meaning Papists,) who would bare their breasts 
to any power, (meaning English,) that may invade 
this country." It was also resolved, at the same 
meeting, " that they would defend the American 
claims to Oregon and to Texas." It was further re- 
solved by these self-same repealers, the sworn suh- 
jects of Bishop Hughs and the Pope, " that the 
American eagle shall not be impeded by natives of 
Ireland in this country." 

If there was not something diabolically treach- 
erous beneath the surface of those resolutions; if a 
viper were not hidden and concealed under the fair 
and verdant foliage of these words, they would be 
to me, as well as others, a source of pleasure. But 
let us remove the leaves and brambles, the blossoms 
and roses, which conceal the subtle and fatal poison, 
and they are calculated to chill and to freeze those 
sympathies which, under other circumstances, Amer- 
icans would feel for those people. Irish Papists bare 
their breasts in defence of the rights of Protestant 
Americans, — and that by the advice and with the 
consent of a Popish Jesuit bishop ! Monstrous inso- 
lence, to impose thus upon hospitable and generous 



382 AURICULAR CONFESSION ANb 

Americans. The resolution, in truth, amounts to 
this: Resolved, That as our Bishop Hughs is 
permitted by the infallible church, to act the hypo- 
crite, we^ as professors of the same creed, are 
entitled to do the same. Resolved, That, as our 
bishops and priests are permitted to keep no faith 
with Protestant Americans, we shall pursue the 
same course, until we gain entire possession of this 
Protestant land. 

The idea of foreign Papists "baring their breasts 
to English bayonets, in defence of the rights of Pro- 
testant Americans," to Oregon or Texas, is laugh- 
able; it is farcical. Ireland contains nearly ten 
millions of souls, — I should have said slaves, — and 
they will not bare their breasts to the trifling num- 
ber of sixteen thousand troops, which England 
deems fully sufficient to keep them in perfect sub- 
jection. But I will tell you, Americans, what those 
Popish heroes will do, and have been doing, ever 
since the year sixteen hundred and forty-nine, when 
the ruling Pope sent Monsignor Gio. Batista Rinuc- 
cini, Archbishop of Fermo, as his nuncio and min- 
ister plenipotentiary to Ireland, almost two hundred 

years ago. They will bare their to be kicked, 

whenever John Bull may take a fancy to exercise 
his clumsy feet in that favorite amusement of his. 
Such slaves as these talk of "baring their breasts" 
in defence of American rights; who, numbering ten 
millions, still permit themselves to be kicked, cufted, 
buffeted and spit upon, by sixteen thousand British 
soldiers ! Pshaw ! Where is the American, who will 
act indignantly say, in the language of a Roman 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 383 

wiiter, ^^ Nmi tali auxilio nee defeiisoribus istisJ^ 
Bishop Hughs and his myrmidons, talk of defending 
the rights of Texas ! Poor priest-ridden, pope-rid- 
den dupes ! The Texans would spurn your aid ; 
they do not want you ; they would not have your 
aid. The Texans had not a thousand effective men 
when they declared their independence of Mexico, 
which was then able to raise an army of two hun- 
dred thousand men. But that army was an army 
of priest-ridden slaves, like yourselves, and the 
gallant little band of Protestant Texas, composed 
chiefly of Americans, defied their power ; declared 
themselves independent, banished from among them 
the treacherous Spanish priests, who were in Texas ; 
they fought for their freedom and they won it. 

Irish repealers, the slaves of O'Connell and the 
scheming Jesuit Hughs of New York, resolve to de- 
fend the rights of Texas ! The thing is too ludi- 
crous. I shall not dwell upon it. 

Let it not be inferred, from what I have stated 
above, that I believe the Irish Papists to be natur- 
ally cowards. I will not do them this or any other 
injustice. They are naturally a brave people. Un- 
subdued and untampered with by their profligate 
priests and Popish superstition, there is not a braver 
or more generous people in the world, and the 
chains which now bind them to British slavery, 
would be snapped in six months,— ^ay, I repeat it, 
Ireland would be free in six months, were it not for 
the ulterior designs of the Pope and his agents, in 
urging upon them abject submission to a power 
which, by a single eflbrt of their native strength, they 
could crush never to rise again. Well does the 
17 



3S4 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Pope know, well do Jesuits and priests understancJ 
that if the Irish nation freed itself from English rule, 
by its native arm, as the United States did, they 
would also free themselves from the dominion of his 
royal holiness the Pope, a,nd the trammels of Jesuit- 
ism and priestcraft ; and hence arise the scruples of 
O'Gonnell, about violating the British constitution. 
Hence the exhortation of Irish priests to their down- 
trodden Irish slaves, to do everything constitutionally. 
v/hich means nothing more or less than this : — let us 
priests, bishops and pope, act for you ; we are afraid 
to risk our own precious necks; we will negotiate 
matters for you. You must feel indebted to us for 
everything you possess ; in the mean time come to 
confession to us regularly , bring us every dollar you 
earn, and we will take care of your political as well 
as your spiritual interest. Your bodies and souls 
shall be taken care of by us. — I can assure the Irish 
Papists in this country and elsewhere, that Daniel 
O'Gonnell and the Jesuit Bishops Hughs, Fenwick, 
and their brethren in this country, have no more 
idea of emancipating them, than they have of re- 
nouncing the Pope, unless with the view of making 
them still greater slaves to the Pope and the infalli- 
ble church; and it is with this view they are now 
forbidding the use of the Bible, knowing full well 
that the free perusal of its sacred pages would en- 
lighten them not only on the subject of iheir ever- 
lasting, but also on that of their civil rights. Well 
indeed may we apply to the Pope, and to the Lord 
Bishop Hughs, and each of his brethern the words 
of the poetj^ — 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 385 

"Loyal his heart, and church and Pope Ms tDast j 
He for religion might not warmly feel ; 
But for the church he had abounding zeal." 

We might well fancy these right reverend gentle- 
men addressing us in the following words of the 
same poet. They do so, in fact, every day. 

" Why send you Bibles all the world about ; 
That men may read amiss and learn to doubt? 
Why teach the children of the poor to read ; 
That a new race of doubters may succeed ? 
Now can you scarcely lull the stubborn crew ; 
And what if they should know as much as you ? " . 

There is not in history one solitary instance to be 
found, where the court of Rome, or Romish priests 
as a body, afforded aid to any people struggling for 
freedom, unless with the ulterior view of subjecting 
them to their own dominion, — a dominion far more 
despotic in its principles and tyrannic in its exac- 
tions, than any that has before been devised by 
human ingenuity ; because that, and that alone, en- 
slaves the soul as well as the body. 

Many instances might be quoted of the truth of 
this, but I shall only refer to one of a recent date. 
While Poland was struggling for her liberty, as we 
are told by a modern and beautiful French writer, 
Lamennais, (Affaires de Rome, p. 110. Paguerre, 
1844,) and the success of the Russians remained 
a doubt, the official Journal of Rome, did not con- 
tain a word which could offend the victorious in so 
many combats; but scarcely had they, the Poles, 
fallen, — scarcely had the atrocious vengeance of the 
Czar begun the long punishment of a nation devoted 
to the sword, to exile and to slavery, — when the 



386 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

same journal could find no terms sufficiently injuri- 
ouSj wherewith to stigmatize those, the noble Poles, 
Avho had fallen victims to fortune. Cowardly- 
Rome trembled before the Czar. He said to Rome, 
would you live yet, place yourself beside the scaffold 
to which I have consigned those rebellious Poles, 
who had the audacity to attempt to free themselves 
from my government, and while they pass on their 
way to the gallows, curse you the victims: — and 
Rome did curse the Poles. 

Atrocious, revolting as the conduct of the Czar has 
been towards the suffering Poles, yet there is some- 
thing noble, something majestic in his treatment of 
Rome. He pays no regard to the insolent ecclesiastic 
of Rome, who would be lord of the universe. The 
Czar does not comprehend the meaning of those ca- 
balistic words, spiritual supremacy. Let us contrast 
the conduct of this sovereign of Russia, with that of 
the sovereigns or executives of the United States, and 
the contrast cannot fail to make a forcible impression 
upon our minds. That of the Autocrat of all the 
Russians is so far truly independent; while that of 
one of our executives, in relation to the Pope, is truly 
spiritless and sycophantic. Witness the following 
letter of Mr. Yan Buren, to the American consul at 
Rome, dated, Department of State, Washington, July 
the 20th, 1830. 

"Your letters of the 11th of April and 5th of 
May, the first anticipating the favorable sentiments 
of his holiness the Pope, towards the government 
and people of the United States, and the last con- 
firming your anticipations, have been received at 
this department, and submitted to the president ; by 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 387 

whom I am directed to tender his hoHness, through 
the same channel, an assurance of the satisfaction 
which he derives from this communication of the 
frank and Uberal opinions entertained by the apos- 
tohc see towards the government and the people, 
and of the policy which you likewise state his holi- 
ness has adopted, and which is so worthy of the 
head of a gi^eat and Christian churchy assiduously 
to cultivate, in his intercourse with foreign nations, 
the relations of amity and good will, and sedulously 
to abstain from all interference in their occasional 
dilficulties with each other, except with the benign 
vieiv of effecting reconciliations between them. 

"You will accordingly seek an early opportunity to 
make known to the Pope, in terms and manner best 
seated to the occasion, the light in lohich the president 
views the communication, referred to, and likewise 
you will assure him that the president reciprocates, 
in their full extent and spirit, the friendly and lib- 
eral sentiments entertained by his hohness towards 
the government of the apostolic see, and the people 
of the states of the church; and it is the president's 
wish that you should, upon the same occasion, offer 
his congratulations to the holy father, upon his 
recent succession to the Tiara, not from any here- 
ditary claim on his part, but from a preponderating 
influence, which a just estimation of his talents and 
private virtues naturally had upon the enlightened 
councils by which that high distinction was confer- 
red ; and which affords the pledge that his pontifi- 
cate will be a wise and beneficent one. 

"You will take care, likewise, to assure his holi- 
ness, in reference to the paternal solicitude which he 



388 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

expresses in behalf of the Roman Catholics of the 
United States, that all our citizens professing that 
religion, stand upon the same elevated ground which 
citizens of all other religious denominations occupy, 
in regard to the rights of conscience, that of perfect 
liberty, contradistinguished from toleration; that 
they enjoy an entire exemption from coercion in 
every possible shape, upon the score of religious 
faith, and that they are free, in common with their 
fellow-citizens of all other sects, to adhere to, or 
adopt the creeds and practise the worship best 
adapted to their reason, or prejudices; and that 
there exists a perfect unity of faith in the United 
States amongst religionists of all professions, as to 
the wisdom and policy of that cardinal feature of all 
our constitutions and forms of government, those of 
the United States and separate states of the union, 
by which this inestimable right is formally recog- 
nized, and the enjoyment of it inviolably secured. 

M. Van Buren." 
I would especially invite the attention of my read- 
ers to the above letter. A proper understanding of 
this correspondence between the executive of this 
country and the Pope, through their representatives, 
will set at rest a question long mooted in every sec- 
tion of the United States, viz., whether the Pope is a 
temporal or spiritual potentate. If the former, Mr. 
Van Buren and the President of the United States 
did but their duty in giving the assurances con- 
tained in the above letter. This was due to him as 
an independent sovereign. As king of Rome, he was 
as well entitled to it as any of the sovereigns of 
Europe; and so far from blaming Mr. Van Buren, 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 389 

for the respectful and courteous manner in which he 
addressed his royal holiness^ I should be among the 
first to award him just praise. The numerical 
weakness of a foreign potentate's subjects, the pau- 
city of their numbers, or their intellectual degrada- 
tion, is, now-a-days, no argument against the legit- 
nnacy of their independent sovereignty. But if the 
latter, — if the Pope of Rome, is not an independent 
and sovereign potentate, — if his sovereignty is only 
spiritual, as the Jesuit Hughs and all Romish priests 
and bishops in the United States would persuade 
us, then I contend, that Mr. Van Buren, the Presi- 
dent of the United States, or any other man who 
with his sanction, writes such a letter as the above 
is a conspirator against this government, and should 
be prosecuted as such. 

Among the foreign powers known to this govern- 
ment, no such power as a spiritual one is enumer- 
ated. The constitution of the United States recog- 
nizes no spiritual power, either at home or abroad ; 
and if Mr. Yan Buren, as the representative of this 
government, has corresponded with a foreign spirit- 
ual potentate, he did that which he was not author- 
ized to do by our nationaV charter, and which the 
executive of the United States, had no more right to 
order him to do, than I had. if the cabinet of his 
holiness, the king of Rome, have half the intelli- 
gence, tact and management for which they get 
credit, they must have felt highly amusea at the 
simplicity and sycophancy of Mr. Yan Buren' s let- 
ter. If the power of the Pope, in these United 
States, be only spiritual, what has he to do with this 
government, or this government with him? The 



390 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

constitution of the United States, and the various 
constitutions of the respective States, recognize no 
spiritual poAver whatever. No court of law nor 
equity, from one end of this country to the other, 
understands what a spiritual power is; nor have 
they made any provision to maintain or enforce it. 
What, then, is it? Where is it to be found? Is it 
visible ? Is there any record of it 7 Is it tangible ? 
In whom is it centred? No trace of it can be 
found among us, and yet we are told it exists ; and 
three millions of Papists in the United States, are 
bound to obey this invisible and intangible thing, or 
whatever it is. 

We are told by Bishop Hughs, that the Pope 
claims only spiritual jurisdiction over this country. 
I explained, in my recent work on Popery, what 
Papists mean by spiritual jurisdiction and spiritual 
power. It would be a loss of time to refer to it 
again. The legerdemain and humbuggery of the 
whole affair are too transparent to deceive any eye 
but that of a credulous American. Without this 
doctrine of spiritual allegiance to the Pope of Rome, 
Popish priests could raise no money for his holiness, 
in the United States, and they dare not openly claim 
for him any civil allegiance. Without it, repealers 
could raise no money for that champion of Popery, 
Daniel O'Connell. 

Had the Romanists of the present day the spirit of 
the ancient Romans, they would spurn this shame- 
ful exaction upon their credulity, but especially 
upon their purse. It is base to submit to it; even a 
Pagan Romanist would spurn at it. He did so once 
before, and if his Pagan spirit was not broken by 



^ POPISH NUNNERIES. 391 

worse than Paganism, — Popery, — he would do so 
again. " For I," said Brutus, 

" Can raise no money by vile means : 
By heavens, I had rather coin my heart 
And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring 
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash 
By any indirection ! " 

Yes, even a Pagan would spurn and scorn the 
deception, cupidity and hypocrisy of Popish Jesuits 
and priests. 

Was there ever upon the Papal throne, since the 
days of Hildebrand, a Pope who did not claim sove- 
reign and temporal jurisdiction over the kingdoms 
of the earth ? Do the annals of mankind record so 
dispassionate and so solemn an act of treachery, or 
so glaring an evidence of temporal power and des- 
potism, as that of Hildebrand, known as Gregory, 
over the Emperor of Germany? The universal 
monarchy and sovereign power, which he and Rome 
wrung from a bleeding world, was never more abso- 
lute than that which the Popes of Rome wrung from 
the superstitions of mankind, in almost every age 
of the world; and now, in the nineteenth century, 
in 1845, the present Pope has the unparalleled inso- 
lence, through his agents in New York, Boston, and 
elsewhere, to fasten upon our necks a yoKe more 
galling than that which heathenism imposea upon 
the Romans. 

This they cannot do by argument, because, to use 
argument with effect, man must be in the right ; but 
to make the best possible use of bad arguments, 
may be, nevertheless, the privilege of genius, craft, 
and intrigue. Hence the introduction of auricular 
17* 



392 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

confession. Hence it is, that Romish bishops and 
priests persuade their people to go to confession, 
where they have the complete mastery over their 
feeUngs, passions, and judgment. They know if 
they can debauch and seduce one female in a fam- 
ily, the whole of the household is at their mercy. 
It is in that accursed tribunal that they persuade 
the people, first, '' that it is abominable to maintain 
that men can work out their salvation, under any 
form of creed whatever, provided their morals are 
pure." Second, "that it is odious and absurd, to 
grant to the people liberty of conscience." Third, 
"that it is impossible to hold the liberty of the 
press in too great detestation." Every Papist is 
compelled in the confessional,- to subscribe to these 
degrading concessions. He must swear solemnly, 
that these propositions are orthodox, and that every 
government should be compelled to acknowledge 
them as such. No man can die in the faith of the 
Romish church, until he acknowledges that these 
propositions are true. No individual can be con- 
firmed as a member of the Romish church, at least 
in Catholic countries, until he assents to them. No 
one can be ordained a Roman Catholic priest, until 
he solemnly swears to maintain them. 

They familiarize the human mind to these infa- 
mous axioms of theirs, from their very infancy ; and 
thus when they arrive at the age at which they are 
permitted to go to confession, which is generally 
from eight to twelve, there is no difficulty in con- 
firming their people in the belief of these horrid 
principles. 

The following passage may be found in the en- 



* POPISH NUNNERIES. 393 

cyclic letter^ addressed by the actual Pope, to all the 
bishops of France, in 1832, in order that they might 
conform, they and their flocks, to these instructions, 
although they are in direct opposition to the laws of 
the country, and the rights of its citizens. Is it ne- 
cessary to say that M. Lamennais protested, with 
all the powers of his great soul, against such odious 
maxims as these, stated in ail their ultramontane 
candor? 

"We now come," says the holy father, ''to 
another cause by which we lament to see the church 
afflicted at this moment. To wit : to that indiffer- 
ence or perverse opinion^ which has spread itself 
abroad on all sides, by the artifices of evil men, and 
in accordance to which, men may attain everlast- 
ing SALVATION BY THE PROFESSION OF ANY CREED, PRO- 
VIDED THAT THEIR MORALS ARE PURE. It will UOt be 

difficult for you, in a matter so clear and evident, to 
repel an error, so fatal as this for the people." 

Is this clear enough? A word to those of our 
number, who are intrusted to the care of these pas- 
tors. So here is an Italian monk, the ultramontane 
head of our bishops, who annuls, at a single dash of 
his pen, one of our most sacred rights, a right, the 
maintenance of which has cost the country torrents 
of bloodshed in the religious wars, like water. 

" From this corrupt course of indifference," pro- 
ceeds the holy father, "originates that absurd and 
erroneous opinion, or madness rather, which asserts 
that the liberty of conscience must be secured and 
guarantied to every one, whomsoever. The way is 
being cleared for this pernicious error by the liberty 
of opinions, full and unbounded, which spreads itse!^^ 



394 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

fai and wide, to the ruin of civil and religious so- 
ciety." 

It is evident, that the holy father commands our 
bishops to inspire their flocks with a horror of one 
of the fundamental laws of our society. Let us con- 
clude with an attack by the same holy father, by no 
means less violent, or ,less conclusive, against the 
dragon of the press. 

'• With this is connected that fatal liberty^ of which 
we cannot but stand in awe', the liberty of libra- 
ries TO PUBLISH ANY WRITING WHATSOEVER ; a liberty 
which some persons still dare to solicit and extend 
with as much noise as ardor." 

''Pope Gregory the XYIth, had scarcely ascended 
the pontifical throne, when he heard of the revolt ol 
Bologna. His first movement was to summon the 
Austrians, and excite the Sanfedistes. The Cardi- 
nal Albani beat the liberals at Cesena ; his soldiers 
pillaged the churches, sacked the town, ravished the 
women. At Forll, the bands committed assassina- 
tions in cold blood. In 1832, the Sanfedistes showed 
themselves in broad day, wearing medals, with efh- 
gies of the Duke of Modena, and of the holy father, 
letters patent, in the name of the apostolical congre- 
gation, privileges and indulgences : The Sanfe- 
distes took the following oath liberally: '^ I swear 
to elevate the altar and the throne upon the bones of 
the infamous liberals^ and to exterminate them xoith- 
oiit pity for the cries of their children^ the tears of 
their old men and vjomen.'' The disorders commit- 
ted by these brigands, passed all bounds; the -court 
of Rome made anarchy regular, organized the San* 
fedistes into bands of volunteers, and granted to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



395 



these bands extraordinary privileges." — The Revo- 
lution and Revolutionists of Italy. Review of the 
TiDo Worlds, November 15, 1844. 

This is a specimen of the spiritual supremacy of 
the Pope, as taught in this country; and thus, 
Americans, would they erect altars upon your bones, 
'' heedless of the cries of your old men and your old 
women," should the Pope's spiritual power ever 
gain the ascendancy over your strong arms, — or 
should his priests, by intrigue and by a play of pas- 
sions, (as Rodin expresses it,) and excitement, obtain 
the control of your hitherto clear intellects. Pause, 
Americans. Hesitate for a moment, you young men 
and young ladies, who, under the influence of some 
momentary excitement, may be tempted to unite 
yourselves with the Romish church, or to go into 
their nunneries. 

The first advance you make, the very first step 
you take to effect this, is in itself utterly degrading 
to you. It is the abandonment of your whole selves, 
bodies and souls, judgment, intellect, understanding, 
mind, liberty and all, to the guidance of a body of 
men whose political intrigues, and public and private 
immorahties, have blackened the pages of history 
for the last sixteen hundred years. 

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Strasburg, in a 
letter to the Paris Constitutionnel, has denied that 
such doctrines as those contained in the three propo- 
sitions which I have quoted above, are taught in 
Popish colleges. He pledges his honor in support of 
this assertion. I have quoted from the Casuists, a 
work written by the fathers of the Jesuit Society. 
The bishop does not deny the doctrines positively, 



303 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

but says that the work from which the quotations 
are made, was written, not by Jesuits, but by a Rev. 
Dr. Moulet, a secular priest. If any other proof 
were necessary, to show the iniquity of Jesuit doc- 
trines, and the truth of every word I have said, and 
others before me have said, against Jesuit intrigue 
and tergiversation, this admission of the Bishop of 
Strasburg, would be sufficient. 

What is the difference between a Jesuit father, 
and a secular priest ? It is simply this. Jesuits are 
limited in the sphere of their duties, by the general 
of their order; and whenever a Jesuit makes his 
appearance in the diocese of any Popish bishop, he 
is subject, while there, to the said bishop. 

The Straisbur g prof essor may succeed in imposing 
upon those who know not the difference between 
a secular priest and a Jesuit. The matter is not 
mended, or the difficulty removed, by having the 
book written by a secular priest ; it is so much the 
worse. An evil deed, for instance treason, when 
committed by a servant, is bad enough; but it is 
much worse when committed by his master. An 
act of perfidy or immorality committed by a priest, 
under the jurisdiction of a bishop, merits execra- 
tion, and should receive it ; but if committed by the 
bishop himself, would become still more execrable. 

I presume that when the Bishop of Strasburg 
pledged his honor that the crimes imputed by others, 
as well as myself, to him and his tools, were not 
sanctioned in his college, or by the writings of 
Jesuits, he had Brother Jonathan in view. His let- 
ler to the Paris Constitutionnel was intended exclu- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 397 

sively for Americans, whom Jesuits know by the 
name of ^^ dolts ^ double dolts. ''^ 

Let us now see how far the word and honor of 
this Jesuit Strashurg bishop are entitled to credit. 
It is proper to do so, as his letter has found its way 
into several of our presses in the western country. 

I pronounce the Bishop of Strasburg's assertion 
ail unqualified^ deliberate^ and unmitigated falsehood. 
An issue is now made between myself and the 
bishop. The question is one of veracity, between 
us ; and I am willing to leave the decision to a jury 
of the public. The bishop is a Jesuit^ and bound, by 
his oath of allegiance to the Pope, to support him 
and the doctrines of his church., at the expense of all 
Protestant governments. He is bound by his oath 
to "hold no faith with heretics." He is bound by 
his oath " to destroy them." He is no citizen of this 
country. He has nothing in common with Amer- 
icans, but the external configurations of humanity. 
He is not personally known to any American, as far 
as I am acquainted; and under these circumstances, 
he comes before the American public with the naked, 
unsupported assertion, that what history has handed 
down, and I, a fellow-citizen of their own, have 
confirmed and declared to be true, is false. Is he to 
be believed in preference to me, even if history was 
silent ? 

I have lived in this country more than twenty-five 
years, and though a foreigner by birth, I will ven- 
ture the assertion, that no Roman Catholic priest 
ever came to America with higher recommendations 
than I. did. Some of them are from Roman Catholic 
bishops, and are now in my possession ; but I will 



398 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

lot ask Americans to give them any credit, because 
a Romish bishop or Jesuit would recommend the 
devil himself, who takes the necessary oath of allegi- 
ance to Rome, and swears to overthrow, by all pos- 
sible means, the heretical government of the United 
States, which sanctions, — I use the very words of 
the Pope, — "that fatal liberty of the press of which 
we cannot but stand in awe^ the liberty of libraries 
to publish any writing lohatsoever ; a liberty which 
some — Americans — dare to solicit with noise and 
ardor." 

I will not insult Americans by askiifg them ta 
give me credit for veracity on the strength of recom- 
mendations from Popish bishops in Europe, men who 
are the sworn enemies of everything dear to freemen. 
I brought with me, from other sources, testimonials 
of the highest respectability, not as a Popish priest, but 
as a man. Among them were introductions to that 
eminent patriot, De Witt Clinton of New York, who 
immediately, on my arrival at his hospitable resi- 
dence in Albany, and during the session of the Legis- 
ture, had me appointed chaplain to the senate. But 
I will not ask Americans to give me credit for ve- 
racity on account of any connections or acquaint- 
ances which I formed while I was a Popish priest. 
The very fact of my being a priest was in itself con- 
tamination. It should disqualify a man from being 
considered an^^thing that was candid, frank or vir- 
tuous. But I will ask Americans to credit me, in 
preference to the Bishop of Strasburg, or any other 
Jesuit priest, upon the testimony of American citi- 
zens, men known to themselves, men of honor, pro- 
bity and patriotism. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 399 

I have been a member of the bar of the States of 
South Carohna and Georgia, for nearly twenty- 
years, until ill health obliged me to change my resi- 
dence temporarily ; and I value the following letter 
which has been sent to me by WiUiam Law, Esq.. 
then judge of the superior court of Georgia, more 
highly than all the documents, testimonials and re- 
commendations, which the Pope of Rome, or the 
whole college of his cardinals and Jesuits, could fur- 
nish. 

^' Savannah^ 26th June ^ 1832. 

'' Dear gm, — Understanding from you that it is 
your intention to leave the State, with a view to the 
practice of law elsewhere, it will I apprehend be ne- 
cessary that the certificate of admission to our bar 
furnislied you by the clerk, should be accompanied 
with a certificate from myself, as the presiding judge 
uf the court in which you were admitted. This is 
necessary to give it authenticity in another State. It 
will afibrd me pleasure to append that verification 
to it, if you will be pleased to send me the certifi- 
cate. 

" Permit me, as you are about to leave us, to off'er 
you my humble testimony to your correct, upright 
deportment as an advocate at the bar of the superior 
courts of the eastern district of Georgia, since your 
admission to the practice of law in the same. 

"Wishing you success and prosperity wherever 
you may settle, I am, dear sir, very respectfully, 
•''Your obedient servant, 

William Law." 

Judge Law resides now in Savannah. He has 
retired from the bench, and practises law in copari- 



'i^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

nership with senator Berrien, of Georgia. I need not 
say who Judge Law is. He is well known, as one 
of the most eloquent and learned advocates of the 
American bar; nor is he more distinguished for his 
legal knowledge, than for his Christian virtues and 
exemplary life. He is at present, and has been for 
many years, an elder of the Presbyterian church, in 
that city. I believe that I have the honor and the 
friendship of this worthy man, up to the moment I 
write. Every earthly interest I have is in this coun- 
try. Its prosperity will advance mine. The over- 
throw of its government would bury in its jruins all I 
have to support me. Who then is to be believed by 
Americans, — the Jesuit bishop of Strasburg, v^rhose 
country is the xoorld^ whose queen is the Popish 
church, and whose kindred are monks and Romish 
priests? Am I unreasonable, under these circum- 
stances, in asking a jury of Americans for a verdict 
in favor of my veracity, my word and my honor, in 
preference to the honor of a foreign Jesuit bishop of 
Strasburg, or any other Popish priest or bishop in 
the United States? You, Americans, are the best 
judges. In addition to these facts and circumstances, 
I will take the liberty of stating that nearly the 
whole delegation to Congress from the State of 
Georgia, where I have so long resided, have borne tes- 
timony to my correct conduct, by recommending me 
to high and lucrative offices under this government. 
Among these were the names of the Hon. J. M'Pher- 
son Berrien, then a next door neighbor of mine, the 
Hon. Thomas Butler King, William C. Dawson, and 
the lamented Richard W. Habersham, of Savannah. 
This last named gentleman is no more, but he has 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 401 

not left behind him one whose confidence and friend- 
ship I vakied more. He was, indeed, the noblest 
work of God^ an honest man. His name is now 
revered in Georgia, and will be there venerated as 
long as she has records to preserve it. I have in 
my possession the most friendly and affectionate let- 
ters from this Christian patriot up to within a few 
weeks of his death, which occurred about two years 
since. I may further add to these distinguished 
names, that of the Hon. Wm. C. Preston, of South 
Carolina, the Hon. Isaac Holmes, of the same State, 
and the Hon. Judge Wayne, of Savannah, one of the 
judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. J 
have evidence in my possession, up to a few weeks 
ago, of the personal friendship of that elegant and 
accomplished gentleman Judge Wayne. I have 
studied law more than twenty years ago with the 
Hon. Mr, Holmes, and never since has his friendship 
towards me been interrupted. As a literary man and 
finished classical scholar Mr. Holmes has scarcely 
a superior in the country. YV ith such testimonials 
as these of my Americanism, honor and veracity, I 
dread not the verdict of an American jury in the 
case now pending between me and the Jesuit bishop 
of Strasburg. 

But before you make up your verdict, I beg to sub- 
mit to you the following sketch of a debate, which 
took place the 5th of last March, in the Swiss Diet 
in Switzerland, on the subject of Jesuits in that 
country. It is taken from a speech of the Hon. Mr. 
Neuhaus, a representative from Berne. The debate 
commenced by the chancellor laying before the as- 
sembly petitions from the people of Switzerland, 



402 AURICULAR CONFESSION AWD 

Signed by 120,000 persons, praying that the Jesuits 
might be expelled from that countr}^ 

" M. Neuhaus said that the question of the Jesuits, 
which was raised last year, had made great progress 
since that time, and its importance might be esti- 
mated by the impression which it had produced on the 
population, the anxiety with which the result of the 
deliberations of the diet was looked forward to, and 
the care taken by all the great councils of the can- 
tons to have their opinions duly represented. ^ * 
According to the eighth article of the federal com- 
pact, the diet took all the measures necessary for 
the internal and external safety of Switzerland. 
That right on the part of the diet was incontestable, 
and had been put in force on former occasions 
within memory. The question, therefore, was not 
whether the diet had a right to take steps against the 
Jesuits, but whether the Jesuits had compromised 
and were compromising the safet3'' of Switzerland. 
It was therefore the question of fact only that he 
would approach. Were the Jesuits dangerous or 
not 7 Were they particularly dangerous as respect- 
ed Switzerland? Yes, the Jesuits were dangerous. 

1. Because of their morality. They taught the peo- 
ple to commit, without remorse of conscience, the 
most culpable actions. Their morality necessarily 
exercised on those exposed to their influence a dele- 
terious effect; and a writer of the eighteenth century 
had said, with great truth, that he detested the 
Jesuits because they were an order ohovtlssant. But 
in republics morality was wanted above all things. 

2. The Jesuits were dangerous because they made 
use of the ecclesiastical character to carry disorder 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 403 

into families, and to divide the members of them, in 
order the more easily to govern them. Examples 
abounded, and, if necessary, he could cite many. 3. 
They were dangerous because the order required of 
all its members a blind obedience, an absolute sub- 
mission. He who was a member of the society, whe- 
ther he were a Jesuit properly so called, or merely 
belonged to the order under another denomination, 
could no longer have either opinions or Avill. As 
soon as the leaders gave orders, those Avho were en- 
rolled in that militia were obliged to obey, without 
examination ; and if the chief ordered the members 
and their associates to work in secret to subvert 
republican governments, they were obliged to obey, 
without examination, whether they thought it right 
or wrong. But what was necessary to the people o^ 
Switzerland, if they wished to maintain their inde- 
pendence, was the sentiment of liberty and moral 
force, and that sentiment the Jesuits annihilated. 4. 
The Jesuits were dangerous because they had neither 
family nor country. As soon as a Swiss citizen en- 
tered the order of the Jesuits, he only belonged to 
that body. On this account the governments of the 
cantons would do well to make a law that any one 
entering the order of the Jesuits should lose his nat- 
ural rights. When a man was obliged to lay aside 
his feelings of family, to disown his cantonal as well 
as federal country, he was no longer a Swiss; he 
was nothing but a Jesuit and a stranger to every 
country. 5. The Jesuits were dangerous because 
they endeavored everywhere to seize upon power. 
In despotic and monarchical governments, where the 
head was invested with extended authority, they 



404 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

might be tempted to make use of the Jesuits as aux- 
iliaries. As long as the Jesuits did not dominate, 
they would consent to serve a master ; but when 
they had attained their end, they took advantage of 
services which they had rendered to establish theii 
domination over those who had recourse to them. 
This was what made all the governments of Europe 
banish them from their states. They were danger- 
ous to monarchies, and still more to republics, where 
the authorities did not possess the elements neces- 
sary to counterbalance their pernicious influence. 6. 
They were especially dangerous to Switzerland, be- 
cause one of the principal ends of the order was to 
extirpate Protestantism. Without doubt, the Swiss 
Catholics had a right that their Protestant brethren 
should respect their religious convictions ; but the Pro- 
testants had also rights which should be respected 
by the Catholics ; and the deputies of the canton of 
Berne would demand, if those Catholic cantons which 
tolerated, and even invited into their bosoms an 
order, the object of which is the extirpation of Pro- 
testantism, conducted themselves like good confeder- 
ates towards the reformed cantons : if they fulfilled 
the federal duties, and if those states had not the 
right to say to the states which received the Jesuits, 
' We have no congregation which labors for the ex- 
tirpation of Catholicism, and we ask of you not to 
tolerate a corporation so hostile to us as the Society 
of Jesus.' These were the principal reasons which 
made the canton of Berne consider the Jesuits as 
dangerous; but there were many others which he 
could state, and among others, the recent events in 
the country were a strong proof of the danger of the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 405 

Jesuits. The only legal way to settle the question 
was, by taking the opinions of the cantons in the 
diet, and if twelve of the cantons voted that the 
Jesuits were dangerous, the others must submit. 
M. Neuhaus concluded by reading his instructions 
from his canton, which were to demand a decree for 
the expulsion of the Jesuits from every part of Swit- 
zerland. 

" The action of the diet is already known." 
The reader may see from the above, proofs almost 
positive of the truth of every crime with which I 
have charged Popish Jesuits. The Hon. M. Neu- 
haus, a representative from a people proverbially 
generous, distinguished as a nation for honesty and 
simple integrity. Switzerland and chivalry are 
almost synonymous since the days of William Tell. 
Switzerland, honesty, virtue and piety are under- 
stood to be almost one and the same thing. Even 
among ourselves, in the United States, a Swiss Pro- 
testant emigrant needs no recommendation but a 
certificate of his nativity. We trust him ; we con- 
fide in him, because he is honest; we believe him 
because he is truth himself All the finer qualities 
of uncorrupted humanity seem to be his by birth- 
right. One hundred and twenty thousand of these 
honorable men petitioned their Legislatiare to pass a 
law for the expulsion of Jesuits from their country, 
and their representative, M. Neuhaus, the embodi- 
ment of their virtue and integrity, supports the 
prayer of their petition, charging those Jesuits to their 
teeth, proving from the history of their past and pres- 
ent lives, that they are collectively and individually 
immoral and treacherous men, the sworn enemies of 



406 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

freedom and disturbers of the peace. He accuses 
lb em of beitig leagued together, and bound by the 
most awful oaths, to overthrow the government 
and extermmate the Protestants of Germany. He 
accuses them of maintaining spies in Protestant 
families, of tampering with their children, and intro- 
ducing disobedience and disorder amongst them. 

I regret extremely that I have not his whole 
speech, but if there is a file of the Swiss papers in 
the city, it will be found in those of last March. 

I am ready now, fellow-citizens, for your verdict. 
I submit the case between the Jesuit Bishop of Stras- 
burg and myself, to you without further argument. 

If I am correct in my charges against Jesuits ; if 
the various crimes, with which Eugene Sue charges 
them, be well founded, — and I declare, on the honor 
of an American citizen and a member of the Amer- 
ican har^ that they are^ — I ask my fellow-citizens of 
the United States for a verdict in my favor. 

But it will be said, for the hundreth time, that the 
constitution of this country protects our people against 
dangers from Jesuits, or any other foreign source ; 
and that our representatives will never betray the 
trust which the people repose in them ; or even if 
they did betray it, the constitution provides for such 
a contingency. True, it does. But let me observe, 
that our constitution never supposed nor made any 
provision for such a contingency as that the people 
would betray themselves; and still this case is as 
plain to me as the noon-day. It is not only possi- 
ble that the people of this country could betray 
themselves, but they are actually doing it at the 
present moment. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 407 

I will admit that a courageous people, such as our 
citizens are, can be neither cozened nor bullied out 
of their liberty; but it must be also admitted, that 
an intelligent and generous people may cease to be 
such ; they may abet and admit amongst them the 
sworn enemies of their constitution, under false 
ideas of toleration and liberty ; they may want the 
wisdom and judgment necessary to discern their 
danger in time; and in the necessarily downward 
progress of degeneracy, it is not even impossible, — 
such things have been before now, — that they may 
want courage to ward off the evil when it stares 
them in the face. 

Look back, Americans, to the history of by-gone 
days. The Tarquins were expelled, and Rome re- 
sumed her liberty. Caesar was murdered, and his 
whole race exterminated; but Rome remained in 
bondage. In the days of Tarquin, the Roman peo- 
ple were not entirely corrupt ; in the days of Caesar, 
they were thoroughly so. You, Americans, may be 
betrayed, though perhaps you may never betray 
yourselves voluntarily. But take heed, I entreat 
you, of Jesuits. Our constitution makes it difficult, 
if not impossible, to destroy our liberty by any 
sudden outbreak of popular fury, or even by the 
treachery of a few. But if you, as a people, or the 
majority of you, will concur with the few ; if you 
will deliberately suffer them to acquire a majority, 
your constitution is nothing better than " a piece of 
parchment, with a bit of red sealing-wax dangling 
from it." It ceases to be yours ; it becomes the con- 
stitution of foreigners ; it is the property of Jesuits 
and Popish priests, the moment they get the major- 
18 



408 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

•ty of voters; yon, Americans, have nothing to io 
v/ith it. It secures no rights for yon, nor should it 
1 e longer called the American constitution. Recol- 
lect that ten or fifteen years will give Papists a 
majority of voters in the United States, nor should 
I be surprised if, within half a century, the Pope of 
Rome was seen in New York or the city of Boston, 
as he is now in Rome, on Palm Sunday, mounted 
upon an ass, in blasphem^ous imitation of the Sa- 
viour entering Jerusalem, v/ith thousands and tens 
of thousands of Papists spreading palms upon the 
streets, and shouting Hosanna to "our Lord God, 
the Pope." 

This subject, Americans, is v/orthy of your serious 
consideration, to say the least of it. You are jealous 
of your charters and your privileges; perhaps suffi- 
ciently so. But ^rou seem indifferent to the peril 
with which your liberty is threatened by Romish 
priests, inculcating treason in their confessionals, up 
to your very beards. ^Vhat avail your laws against 
treason, implied treason and constructive treason? 
What avail your bills of rights, either national or 
state, when a priest, at your very door, aye, under 
your very roofs, is insidiously instilling into the ears 
of his PENITENTS at the confessional, treachery to 
your government, to 3^our laws, to your religion, and 
even to each other ? What avails your trial by jury, 
when oaths lose their sanctity, and a Jesuit teaches 
his penitent that 710 faith is to be held 2/Hth Protes- 
tants ; while there are amongst you nearly three 
millions of people, v/ho are tauglit to disregard youi 
laws, whose rulers, — the priests, — connive at its in- 
fringement, and refuse themselves to be amenable to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 409 

70UT civil or criminal courts? Do not be startled at 
my telling ^^ou that they refuse to be amenable to 
your courts. This is probably new to many of you ; 
but as I make no statement which I cannot prove, I 
refer you to the case of the Romish priest, Carbury, 
in New York. It occurred some years ago, and is 
duly reported. 

This priest, Carbury, peremptorily refused answer- 
ing, while on the stand as a witness, any questions 
put to him by the court, in a case of great impor- 
tance affecting the government of the State of New 
York. He defied the judge on the bench, the sheriff, 
and all other, officers of the court. He contended 
that the constitution of the United States guarantied 
to him the free exercise of his religion, and, by impli- 
cation, the right of hearing confession^ and giving 
and receiving in the confessional such counsel and 
advice as his church required of him to give. And 
such was the sway which foreign Papists had in 
New York at that time, that the court did not and 
dare not commit him to prison for contempt ; though, 
under similar circumstances, the officers of the court 
would drag an American citizen to jail, as they 
would a common felon. But the priest Carbury did 
no more than he was ordered to do by his church. 

The Popish council of Lateran declares "it un- 
lawful for a civil magistrate to require any oath 
from a Roman Catholic priest." A work, called the 
Corpus Juris Canonici, containing all the revised 
statutes of the Council of Trent, the last held in the 
Popish church, has issued the following proclama- 
tion to all monks, priests, bishops, and Jesuits : " We 
declare it unlawful for civil magistrates to require 



410 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

any oath of the clergy, and we forbid all priests 
from taking any such oath." The Council of Lat- 
eral! declares and announces to the Popish pries c- 
hood, as well as to the whole world, •' that all magis- 
trates, who interpose against priests in any criminal 
cause, whether it be for murder or Idgh treason^ 
shall be excommunicated ; and if he condemn any 
priest for murder^ or any other crime, he shall be 
excommunicated." 

Thus we see that in our very midst, a Romish 
priest has but to go into his confessional, and there 
he may become accessory before or after the fact, to 
treason, arson, murder, or other crimes, and hold our 
laws and our magistrates in utter contempt and utter 
defiance. This they have done before, in the neigh- 
boring city of New York, and this they will do 
again, whenever it suits their plans and purposes. 

Pour in amongst us a few more millions of a peo- 
ple who believe and sanction this doctrine; flood 
our country w^ith a population subject to a priest- 
hood maintaining such doctrine as this, and what 
must be the consequence? Vice, ignorance and lazi- 
ness ; just what it is in every country where Romish 
priests are permitted to exist and exercise their 
pernicious principles. There is a defect of moral 
principle and moral honesty wherever the Popish 
confessional is to be found. I know the reverse of 
this is believed by Americans, and not without some 
apparent reason. Here I do not blame them. They 
are deceived, and often have I wished, often and 
often have I resolved to undeceive them in this par 
ticular. Many and many a time have I resolved to 
'mj no longer a party to this shameful imposition 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 411 

upon Americans. Many and many a time, have I 
deterinined to shake off from my soul any participa- 
tion, directly or indirectly, in fastening upon the 
minds of American Protestants that the Romish 
confessional was the means of making Roman Cath- 
olic laborers and serv^ants more honest than they 
otherwise would be. It is not so. Protestants know 
not the plans or schemes of Popish priests, in any- 
thing. Fraud and imposition are reduced to a 
science in the Romish church. Let me explain how 
the impression has got among Protestants, that con- 
fessijig shis to the priests is a very good thing " for 
the ignorant Irish." "/^f keeps them honestS' I can 
scarcely refrain from laughing, when I hear this ob- 
servation. It has been made to me by some of the 
most amiable, benevolent, and charitable ladies and 
gentlemen in this city of Boston, and elsewhere ; 
and though I understood the deception played upon 
them, I felt almost unwilling to remove so charitable 
but delusive a dream. There is an old proverb, "it 
is better late than never." Let me do so now. Jus- 
tice to Protestants, and even to the Roman Catholic 
laborers and domestics themselves, requires this at 
my hands. 

The modus operandi of Romish priests is as fol- 
lows : When a Popish or Jesuit priest settles in a 
city or town, he looks about him and ascertains 
what the character, circumstances, politics and re- 
ligion of the ditferent families are. If he discovers 
that any particular Protestant family is wealthy, 
entirely unacquainted with Popery, and liberally 
disposed, he takes a note of the fact, and determines, 
by some means, to form an acquaintance with the 



412 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

head of that family. This is sometimes not easily 
done. It is not often that men of wealth are desir- 
ous of the personal acquaintance of clergymen of 
any denomination. They know that, pretty gener- 
ally speaking, there is little to be gained, so far as 
Vv^orldly goods are concerned, from a personal inti- 
macy with them. Of this Romish priests are well 
aware, and act accordingly. When one of them 
desires an acquaintance with the head of a family, 
he unceremoniously calls upon him, hands him some 
money, — more or less according to circumstances, — 
and without any explanation tells him it is his, and 
seems no way desirous of further conversation. The 
gentleman or lady, who receives the money, of 
course, detains the priest or Jesuit, and asks what 
he wishes him or her to do with this money ; whe- 
ther he deposited it for safe-keeping, or whether he 
wished it paid over to some oiio. The answer of 
the Jesuit is, sir, or madam, " the money is yours. 
I received it in the discharge of my duty as a 
priest," and he departs. 

The result of this piece of Jesuit acting is obvious. 
The gentleman mentions the circumstance to his 
family, the merchant to his neighboring merchants, 
the mother mentions it to her children, and to every 
mother on her list of visitors, and all finally come to 
the conclusion that the money has been received in 
the confessional ; that some poor Roman Catholic in 
their employment had stolen it, and that the priest 
in the confessional caused restitution to be made; 
that, after all, this " going to confessional was a good 
thing, — it kept the Catholic servants honest ; and if 
U were not for it, there would be no safety in giving 



POl'ISH NUNNERIES. 4J3 

tnem employment." The husband tells his wife to 
throw no obstacles in the way of her domestics going 
to confession, as he beheved it was a check upon 
their dishonesty, and makes np his mind that it is 
at least good policy to sustain Popery and Popish 
priests. He calls upon the .lesuit bishop or priest, 
touches his hat for him should he meet him upon 
the streets, tells him he would be happy to see him 
at his house; and thus, by this tedious, though sure 
process, does a reverend Jesuit priest gain his end. 
The family is now at his mercy ; and the best recom- 
mendation a domestic can bring to this family, or 
any of their acquaintances, is that of a scheming 
deceitful Popish priest or bishop, with whom, if prop- 
erly known, no respectable man would be seen 
walking the streets. Often have I done this while a 
Romish priest. 

This process, by which Popish priests and Jesuits 
often insinuate themselves into the confidence of 
some of our most respectable Protestant families, has 
in it something ineffably mean, contemptible and 
wicked. There is something worm-like and vam- 
pire-like in the whole process. '^Fhe bold robber is 
an honorable man, compared with a skulking Jesuit 
priest. The robber rims some risk in gaining pos- 
session of his boot}^; he has, at least, the redeeming 
q^uality of personal bravery. The eagle, which 
takes his prey to the very pinnacle of the loftiest 
rock, though that prey should be the infant of the 
fondest mother, and there devours it before the eyes 
of its agonized parent, must claim more or less ad- 
miration for its boldness. There is a majesty in its 
flight which diminishes the atrocity of the act: by 



414 ATTRICULAR CONFESSION AND 

one bound the noble bird gains his point. But tl e 
Jesuit, like the worm, like the loathsome reptile, 
gains his by beginning at the root, at the base of 
domestic happiness and virtue, and creeps and 
gnaws his way until he reaches its summit, and 
then laughs as he sees it mouldering under his feet. 
But this is not all. The Protestant family with 
whom he forms an acquaintance by these dishonor- 
able means, are not the only sufferers. Injustice is 
done to the Catholic domestics in Protestant families. 
A palpable imputation of dishonesty is thrown upon 
the whole body of them. An implied impression is 
left upon the minds of Protestants that they are all 
dishonest, — that they would all rob, pilfer and steal, 
if they were not forbidden and compelled to make 
restitution in the confessional. But what signifies it 
to a Jesuit priest, what Protestants think of poor 
Koman Catholics ? If they only believe that priest' 
and Jesuits are sai?its, that is all they care for. If 
priests can only manage to cause Protestants to at- 
tribute the honesty of Papists to themseWes, and can 
cause the Catholics to hate and despise Protestants 
for suspecting them of dishonesty, their point is 
gained, though at the expense of injustice both to 
Protestant and Catholic. It is peculiarly unjust to- 
wards Catholic domestics, who are really as honest 
as other people, if their priests will let them be, and 
who might be as good citizens as others, were it not for 
priests and Jesuits. Do away with the supremacy of 
the Pope and aurimdar confession^ and the foreigners 
who come among us from Ireland and other Catho- 
lic countries, would be as peaceable, as industrious 
and as worthy citizens as any we have, but never 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 415 

can these poor people enjoy the blessings of freedom 
here or elsewhere, while they have any connection 
with priests, confessionals, or popes. Americans 
are not inimical to foreigners who conduct them- 
selves with propriety, and pay a due respect to the 
laws of their country ; but they are inimical, — and 
it is their duty to be so, — to all who traitorously 
interfere with their civil rights ; and it is not a little 
Ingular, that among the millions of foreigners 
which have fled to this land of freedom, none but 
Papists have interfered with their laws, their institu- 
tions, or their customs. I have resided in the United 
Stales for thirty years or thereabouts, and never have 
I heard a Protestant say that he has been ill-treated 
or unkindly dealt with by Americans, on account of 
his foreign birth; and I can declare, with equal sin- 
cerity, that I have never known a Roman Catholic 
satisfied with our republican form of government, 
and who did not avow, — when he could do so with- 
out being heard by Protestants, — that he wished a 
Roman Catholic goveriiment established in its place. 
It is a strange circumstance, but nevertheless true, 
that Americans have no difficulties with any foreign- 
ers amongst them except the Roman Catholics 
There are various denominations of foreigners in 
the United States, but all others enjoy the blessings 
of liberty, quietly and thankfully. Papists alone 
are dissatisfied ; they alone refuse to hear to reason, 
and seem inclined to govern by force. No Protes- 
tant priest in the United States has ever been known 
to be controlled in the discharge of his duty by a 
foreign potentate. None of them were ever known 
to harangue their flocks and march them through 
18* 



416 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

American cities, with banners bearing the treason- 
able motto, written in conspicuous letters, '-^Amer- 
icans shant rule usP Popish bishops and Papists 
alone, have dared to do this. 

I have always been, and I trust I am now, the 
advocate of peace ; but I will confess, that I am at a 
loss to know whether there is to be found in any 
code of political, or even moral ethics, a single pas- 
sage which can justify Americans in permitting this 
outrage upon their laws and upon their national 
character. It may be a salutary inconsistency^ a. 
laudable apostasy^ on the part of Americans, to per- 
mit this insult to their country and to the memory 
of their noble and patriotic ancestors : but if these 
ancestors, who now sleep in their graves, were liv- 
ing, and saw this Pojnsh flag with this Popish motfo^ 
paraded by foreign Papists over their graves, I will 
only say, the insult should never be repeated ; there 
would be no one left to bear the standard. 

I do not believe, that, from the days of Cain to the 
days of Bishop Hughs, of New York, there has ever 
been witnessed so insolent, or so inflated a conden- 
sation of treason, as was contained in that solitary 
Popish motto, "Americans shan't rule us;" and it 
Americans were not a people of singular forbear- 
ance, they would ha.ve levelled to tlie ground every 
Popish church, and put to the sword every Popish 
priest and bishop in the country. 

The poor Irish Papists who marched through our 
cities, waving in the very face of Americans, the 
flag which bore this treasonable motto to which I 
have alluded, are not so much to be blamed ; a ma- 
jority of them are but the children of impulse, whose 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 417 

passions are played upon by designing priests. I 
repeat it,— ^and again and again I have repeated it, — 
the Irish are naturally a well-disposed people. They 
would be true to this country, and faithful to its 
laws and constitution, if their priests and church 
would let them. This is evident in the contrast 
which is visible between the Papists and Protestants 
o( Ireland. There are not in this country better 
men or more faithful citizens than the Protestants 
of Ireland. Where can we find a man who values 
character more highly than an Irish Protestant 7 
Where is there to be found a man, who contributes 
more, by his own example and that of his family, to 
the preservation of virtue and morality, than a Pro- 
testant Irishman, in the United States 7 I can say, 
from my own knowledge of Protestant Irishmen in 
particular, that they are temperate, frugal, indus- 
trious, and eminently sincere in their professions and 
attachments. I mean not any invidious comparison, 
when I say there is no finer character than a Pro- 
testant Irishman. He is in earnest in everything, in 
his words and in his actions. 

Americans, give him the hand of friendship; give 
him your confidence ; he will not betray you. In the 
hour of danger, he will stand by yourselves, your 
laws, and your constitution. He will defend them 
with his strong arm and brave heart; his religion 
teaches him to do so. But not so the Irish Papist. 
Trust him not at least until he renounces his reli- 
gion, which tells him that you are heretics, and 
should be extirjjated, and that your constitution shall 
nrt rule him. 

I am little inclined to moralize, but it is to me a 



418 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

sad reflection, to see this contrast between the Pro 
testant and Roman Catholic Irish ; all oc(5asioned by 
that accursed thing called Popery. 

Even the Christian League, so grossly abused by 
Papists, seem to entertain no other feelings than 
tliose of hospitality towai'ds them; but in truth, 
nothing is to be feared by Papists from that associa- 
tion. As far as I know them by reputation, tiiey 
are men of zeal, piety, and fine talents ; but they 
are no match for the trained bands of the Popish 
arm}^ They want discipline. It is true I know 
nothing of them but through their speeches, some of 
which have been published in our leading religioUvS 
journals. These I have read, and the League itself 
could not give me credit for taste or judgment, did 1 
not pronounce them pointless, pithless, powerless, 
almost useless. They evidently overrate themselves 
or undervalue the force of their opponents. The lat- 
ter I have reason to know is the fact. 

It is true his holiness has condescended to ciirse 
them. He sent recently a bull formally excommu- 
nicating them as a set of damned heretics. I am 
glad of this. It may arouse them to a greater con- 
cert of action. 

But what if this League should succeed in that 
which seems to be after all their leading object, ths 
circulation of the Bible in Italy? Suppose they even 
succeeded in suppressing .Jesuitism altogether in that 
country, what then ? Would Popery cease to exist '^ 
Or has the Christian League counted the cost at 
which this may be done? Have they reflected that 
while they are mowing down the withered weeds 
of Popery in the m.orally ba^rren fields of Italy, that 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 419 

Jesuits a-^e carefully collecting its seeds and roots, 
and planting them in the new and rich fields of their 
own country, where, in the homely but expressive 
language of our farmers, one acre will produce more 
than ten in Italy ? The whole course of this League, 
as far as I am able to judge, is injudicious, and for 
the one moral good that will be the consequence, 
fifty evil ones must follow. Not a single member 
of this learned association would apply their rule 
of action, in relation to Italy, to the management of 
any other transaction in life. What farmer, for 
instance, would waste his time in cultivating a sandy 
barren field on his farm, and leave uncultivated a 
rich, loamy and productive one 1 Or would he try to 
cultivate both without sufficient hands to do either 
well? Assuredly, no judicious man would do so; 
or if he did, a failure and poverty would be the ne- 
cessary consequence. If the League desire success, 
they must strike at the root of the evil of which 
they complain. Who, for instance, that had a tree 
in his garden, whose fruit and blossoms were poison- 
ous, would spend his time, every spring and autumn, 
in plucking off those blossoms and gathering up this 
fruit, with a view of getting rid of this troublesome 
and destructive tree? Would you, gentlemen of the 
Christian League, not smile at the individual whom * 
you saw thus employed? Would you not, in charity, 
say to him, — sir, you should root out that tree alto- 
gether from your garden ; but especially should you 
take care that if any of its seeds has found its way 
mto a richer garden or more valuable soil of yours, 
to extirpate the latter first, as the poison which that 



420 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

^ill emit will be much more rank, subtle and in 
greater quantity. 

If Jesuitism were now confined to Italy alone, the 
nembers of the Christian alliance may, perhaps, be 
ight. If there was but one tree in the farmer's gar- 
den, and its seeds had not taken root in any of his 
more valuable domains, he might take his own time 
in removing the tree, either by cutting it down, or 
by gathering up its fruits and blossoms to suit his 
taste, fancy or eccentricity. But when the seed of 
this tree has taken root and begins to flourish luxu- 
riantly, in the only spot of land from which he 
expected support for himself and family, he is a 
thriftless farmer that would not extirpate this tree 
root and branch, fruit and blossom, from this valua- 
ble spot on which his own support and that of a 
numerous family depended. 

Let this rule be applied to the individual members 
of the Christian alliance, or rather let each member 
apply it to himself. He cannot but see that the poi- 
sonous seed of Popery has found its way to this 
country, and taken deep root in some of its most 
verdant fields. I am aware that these gentlemen 
will pay but little attention to my remonstrances or 
warnings. Men entrenched behind the pride of 
opinion will seldom yield to the summons of reason. 
For more than twenty years I have warned Protes- 
tants, but to no effect, of an approaching inundation 
of Popish priests and Jesuit principles. Suppose a 
tire should rage through one of our most populous 
cities; suppose it should have extended to the very 
middle of its lengthiest streets; would it be wise to 
go and try to check its progress by seeking for the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 421 

spot where it began ? The whole force of i e fire 
companies and citizens should be concentrate it the 
extreme point at which it extended; every ■'.flbrt 
should be made to prevent its progressing 1 > ther. 
Palaces, houses, hovels, goods, ail should be piille'' 
down at every risk of individual property to stop 
*he conflagration. Suppose a prairie were on fire ; 
suppose that prairie belonged to the Christian alii- 
ajice ; suppose the loss of it involved their own ruin 
and the ruin of their posterity. — would they, or any 
one of them, go to look for the spot where' the fire 
originated ? Not they. It would be madness to do 
so. Each an(J every one of them would turn up 
their sleeves and never cease to labor until they cut 
a ditch deep and wide enough to prevent the pro- 
gress of the flames. 

Why do they not pursue the same course in rela- 
tion to Popery? They see Popery burning, blazing, 
whizzing, and devastating this whole land, and in 
place of cutting a ditch, or throwing up such a bar- 
rier as will check its further advance, they go by a 
sort of retro-progressive movement, back to Italy, to 
begin this work. Pardon me, fellow-citizens. Though 
I disapprove of the course of your proceedings in try- 
ing to prevent the further spread of Popery, I am 
willing to acknowledge that in talents, zeal, piety, 
and general learning, you infinitely excel me ; but I 
believe I am not vain in saying that in the knowl- 
edge of Popery and Jesuit intrigue, I am not inferior 
to you. You are evidently in the dark in practical 
acquaintance with Popery, and I hesitate not to tell 
you now, that until you unite with me heart and 
hand in my efforts to extirpate it from this country, 



422 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

you will be laughed at by every Romish priest and 
Dishop in the United States ; well knowing, as they 
do, that while you are converting one Italian to Pro- 
testantism, they are conv-erting five hundred Amer- 
icans to Popery ; and that while you are distributing 
one little tract, which one Itahan in a thousand, — 
even if he could, would not read, — they are building 
one hundred colleges, nunneries, and monk houses, 
in your very midst, and at your very doors. You 
will find, by-and-by, that this very country of 
yours, this very land of freedom, will supply even 
Italy with Jesuits and priests enough to drive you, 
your Bibles and tracts, beyond their boundaries. 
Stand upon your own soil ; let Americans never en- 
gage in any foreign religious or political war. You 
have not now the moral power to wage an offensive 
religious war; that day is gone by. I warned you 
of it twenty-five years ago, but you heeded me not: 
you were deaf. You have quite enough to do now 
to defend your own soil, and much more, I fear, than 
you will be able to accomplish, with all your zeal 
and talents. 

One of the members of the Christian League, at 
its late convention in Boston, has stated, if I am not 
mistaken, that the Pope read one of its tracts, and 
looked very sad. For the word sad, should be sub- 
stituted glad. If he read the tract at all, which I 
doubt, it must have been extremely gratifying to 
him. It showed him clearly that he had succeeded 
in humbugging Americans even farther than he ex- 
pected; and with due deference to each and every 
member of the League, I must say, that this is the 
only inference which any man, versed in a knowl- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 423 

edge of Popery, or even of human nature, would or 
could draw from that chcumstance. 

The Romish church has a vast interest in this 
country ; an interest so deep that no line can sound 
it ; an interest of such magnitude, that the power of 
numbers can scarcely calculate it, and of such alti- 
tude, that it scarcely admits of a measurement ; and 
the Pope's object is to divert the attention of the 
Chi'istiaii League^ and all other American Protes- 
tants, from this country to Italy, which, if given to 
us with all its relics^ Jesuits, monks and nuns, would 
not enrich us much in a pecuniary point of view, and 
would be only the means of flooding us with infi- 
delity and immorality. 

It is sound policy in the Pope, to attract the atten- 
tion of American Protestants to Italy. He knows 
well, that the citadel of our liberties can never be 
taken, without this or some other similar plot. Let 
him but succeed in turning the eyes of Americans 
from the altar of our own liberty, on which the God 
of freedom sits enthroned, to Italy, and pour in upon 
us his vassals at the rate of two thousand in forty- 
eight hoiirs^ — as we are told was done in New York, 
last week, — and freedom's God will soon be dishon- 
ored, and the image of some Popish vagabond, called 
saint^ will be seated in its place. 

The whole country must form itself into one Pro- 
testant alliance, and swear upon the altar of freedom, 
that no man shall be admitted to the rights of an 
American citizen, until he forswears all allegiance^ 
sjnritnal and temporal^ civil and religious, without 
mental reservation or equivocation, to the Pope of 
Rome Every appeal to the Pope of Rome, from the 



424 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

citizens of this country, or from any man living 
within its limits, for the purpose of settling any 
ditiicnlties between them about church rights, civil 
rights, or any other rights whatever, should be con- 
sidered treason ; and the individual or individuals 
who shall make such appeals, whether a Popish 
archbishop, bishop, priests, Jesuits, or laymen, should 
be prosecuted as felons^ and subjected to the most 
ignominious punishment known to our laws. 

This, and this alone, can effect nail y arrest the pro- 
gress of Popery in these United States. No Papists 
can complain of this, and no honest man will object 
to it. Such a law is not at variance with our con- 
stitution; it prevents no man from worshipping God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience. On 
the contrary, it only guaranties even to the Papist, in 
still stronger terms than our constitution now does, 
the right of worshipping God as he pleases, and re- 
lieves him from the degrading obligation of being 
obliged to worship liim according to the dictates of 
the conscience of a foreign tyrant, the Pope of Rome, 
and his insolent minions in this country. 

I believe there is not even an Irish Catholic in this 
country \y\-\o will not support such a law. A Uttle 
reflection will satisfy them that nearly all the evils 
they suffer, and have borne patiently for centuries 
back, have been brought upon them by the Church 
of Rome. They will soon perceive, if they only 
take the trouble of examining the question, that 
there is not, and never was, such a system of gen- 
eral, permanent, and unhmited slavery, as that to 
which the Romish church has reduced them. It is 
irn^ooncilable with happiness, good order, public and 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 425 

private tranquillity; and there cannot possibly exist 
a more singular anomaly, than to see a whole people 
willing to submit to such a system, and preferring 
it to the rational freedom which they enjoy in this 
country. 

Far be it from me, and foreign indeed is it from 
my thoughts, to say, or do, or write anything that 
may injure the true welfare of the poor Irish Cath- 
olics. I would serve them, and, in the full flow of 
my affection for them, I would beg of them to pause 
and look seriously into their condition. The year 
before last, 1843, the Irish people paid to O'Connell 
twenty-eight thousand pounds. This was called the 
O'Connell tribute. In the same year, they paid i^e- 
'pealrentj amounting to the enormous sum of seven- 
ty-eight thousand five hundred pounds sterling; 
amounting in all, to one hundred and six thousand 
five hundred pounds British money. The above, I 
take from the accounts and estimates of the repeal 
journals. Let us add to the above sum the amount 
which the Irish in the United States have sent over 
to Ireland, and some idea may be formed of the 
grinding tyranny which the Romish church and her 
agents exercise over their deluded victims here and 
elsewhere. 

Under these circumstances, is it not my duty, is 
it not the duty of every friend of humanity, to ap- 
peal to the good sense of the Irish, to their "sober 
second thought," and ask them, why submit to 
such imposition as this? Why not resist these ty- 
rannical exactions of the Church of Rome? For they 
know well, that it is not Irish repeal or American 
lepeal, that the Pope and his priests have in viewj 



420 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

bnt church repeal. What have the Irish received in 
exchange for the vast sums which they have given, 
and the blood which they have shed, to eflfect this 
Irish, or rather church repeal, and the loss of that 
confidence and esteem, which they might other-, 
wise have from Americans? Nothing. Emphatically 
nothing. Suppose they succeeded in overthrowing 
the constitution; suppose they reduced to sad re- 
ality the words of their daring and treasonable 
motto, ^^ Americans shanH rule 2is,^^ and the Amer- 
ican constitution were trampled under their feet; 
suppose the " Protestant heretics of the United 
States" were extirpated and exterminated, qui boiio^ 
whose advantage would it be ? Would it be yours, 
poor, warm-hearted, but deluded Irish Catholics? 
Would your new Popish rulers give you a better 
constitution? Would your new Popish signers to 
yoar constitution be men of more piety, liberality, 
or patriotism, than the signers of the Declaration of 
the Independence of these United States? Let the 
civilized world answer the question. I shall not 
record it. It should be registered only in. heaven. 

Poor Papists! Yon are not only, slaves, bnt you 
are denied the privilege of choosing your own mas- 
ter. . Your task-master, the Pope, and his overseers 
the bishops, will not even allow you to choose yoiu 
own teachers, or have priests of your choice. They 
will not even give you a voice in the choice of your 
pastors. Do you call this freedom of conscience? 
X bishop, some insolent tool of the pope, tells you to 
build a church ; puts his hand in your pockets, takes 
out the last dollar some of you have, builds a mag- 
nificent chapel, and when you want a priest, whom 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 4^7 

you. believe most competent to instruct yourselve? 
and your children, you cannot have him ; and if you 
insist upon your just right to choose him, you are 
told bv your tyrant overseer, the bishop, to be silent, 
or he will lock up the church, and curse you, and 
every one belonging to you. Call you this freedom 
of conscience 7 Call you this the right of worship- 
ping God according to the dictates of your own con- 
science 1 Yes. Such is your infatuation. I ask you, 
Irish Papists, whether I am exaggerating or even 
discoloring the truth, in what I here state ? 

About the year 1818, the Roman Catholics of 
Norfolk, Virginia, had for their priest a man sup- 
posed by them to be among the best of the order. 
They wished him continued among them; but their 
bishop would not allow it; and when they mur- 
mured, he threatened to curse them; they sent a 
remonstrance to the Pope of Rome, but he did not 
deign to notice it; they had to submit. Here was 
liberty of conscience with a vengeance ! The Roman 
Catholics of Philadelphia, New Orleans, Charleston, 
and New York, sent similar remonstrances to his royal 
holiness, the Pope ; but in place of redress, he repri- 
manded them for their insolence, and threatened to 
curse them, if they exhibited any further symptoms 
of contumacy; and they crouched like so many 
whipped spaniels, perfectly content with the p7-iv- 
ilege of paying out their money and building mag- 
nificent churches for the Pope's agents. 

A similar case occurred in this city of Boston, if I 
am correctly informed, only a short time ago. A 
large majority of one of the most respectable Roman 
Catholic congregations in this city, wished to hav9 



428 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

for their pastor, a priest whom they beUeved -to be a 
man of talents ; but their Bishop. Fenwick, — a prac- 
tical Jesuit, with talents below mediocrity, but pos- 
sessing all the craft, cunning and intrigue of his 
order, — had the unparalleled assurance to tell them 
that they should not have the jmstor of their choice ; 
that they had no voice in the matter ; that he was the 
church \\ ithin the limits of his diocese ; that they who 
did not hear the church " were worse than heathens 
and publicans ;" and that if they did not shut up their 
mouths, he would shut up their church at once, and 
curse them if they became contumacious. Is this free- 
dom of conscience 7 And yet we hear this very ma- 
jority, — this insulted, down-trodden majority, — talk 
of the right of worshipping God according to the dic- 
tates of their own conscience. Shameful proceedings 
these, in a free country ! Base tyranny over a gener- 
ous people ! Why not say to this would-be despot, 
Fen wick, we acknowledge you our bishop; we will 
hear to any objections which you have to make 
against the pastor of our choice; but if you have 
none to make, we shall have him; the church is our 
'pro'perty ; and you and your interdicts, curses and all 
such "raw-heads and bloody-bones," may go to 
Rome ; we want you not in a free country. No 
longer shall we submit in blind obedience to you, or 
to a foreign Pope. 

The great mass of Irish Catholics, on whom the 
arts of delusion and chicanery are chiefly practised, 
do not understand the meaning of the word freedom. 
They are taught by priest and Jesuits in the confes- 
sional, to misapply that term altogether. Freedom 
or liberty means in its true sense, a faithful and con- 
scientious adherence to law and the constitution of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 429 

the country in which we Hye, and of which we are 
members. It is the obedience of duty, and antici- 
pates compulsion. It is not a blind obedience, such 
as that taught by Popish priests, and which favors 
the extension of their power. Priests and bishops 
would, if they could, limit the comprehensive term, 
liberty, to the privilege of bowing to his holiness the 
Pope, and building churches for him. But even 
Papists are beginning to doubt the legitimacy of this 
application of the term, and I am much mistaken if 
there are not, even now, thousands of them in the 
city of Boston, New York, and elsewhere, who will 
unite with Americans in petitioning Congress to pass 
a law, making it treason, in any man in the United 
States, whether native or foreigner, to hold any cor- 
respondence, or to avow any allegiance of any kind 
or under any name or title, spiritual or temporal, with 
the Pope of Rome, knowing as they do that he is a 
temporal potentate. Let the whole people. Christian 
League, Natives, Odd-fellows, Freemasons, Whigs, 
Democrats, Conservatives, and all unite in one great 
national petition to the Congress of the United 
States, and in one fervent and loud prayer to the 
God of mercy, that he may give the said Congress a 
correct view of their duty, and cause them to hear 
and grant our prayer. Tais, with such improve- 
ments as wiser heads may suggest, is the course I 
would advise to be pursued in the present posture 
of our national and moral condition. The time 
seems propitious ; our executive is said to be a Chris- 
tian. God send he may prove so, and that the bland- 
ishments of office may not blind him to a sense of 
his duty to God and his country ! 



}! 



DESTRUCTION OF THE INQUISITION IN 
SPAIN. 



In 1809, Col. Lehmanowsky was attached to the 
part of Napoleon's army which was stationed in 
Madrid. And while in that city, said Col. L., I usca 
to speak freely among the people what I thought of 
the Priests and Jesuits, and of the Inquisition. It 
had been decreed by the Emperor Napoleon that the 
Inquisition and Monasteries should be suppressed, 
but the decree, he said, like some of the laws enacted 
in this country, was not executed. Months had 
passed away, and the prisons of the Inquisition had 
not been opened. One night, about 10 or 11 o'clock, 
as he was Avalking one of the streets of Madrid, two 
armed men sprang upon him from an alley, and 
made a furious attack. He instantly drew his sword, 
put himself in a posture of defence, and while strug- 
gling with them, he saw at a distance, the lights of 
tlie patroles, — French soldiers mounted, who carried 
lanterns, and who rode through the streets of th^ 
city at all hours of the night, to preserve order. He 
called to them in French, and, as they hastened to 
his assistance, the assailants took to their heels and 
escaped, not however before he saw by their dress 
that they belonged to the guards of the Inquisition. 
1.9 



432 DESTRUCTION OF THE 

He went immediately to Marshal Soult, then Gov- 
ernor of Madrid, told him what had taken place 
and reminded him of the decree to suppress this 
institution. Marshal Soult replied that he might go 
and destroy it. Col. L. told him that his regiment 
(the 9th of the Polish Lancers) was not sufficient 
for such a service, but if he would give him two 
additional regiments, — the 117th, and another, 
which he named, he would undertake the worlc. 
The 117 th regiment was under the command of Col. 
l)e Lile, who is now, like Col. L., a minister of the 
gospel, and pastor of an evangelical church in Mai - 
seilles, France. The troops required were granted, 
and I proceeded (said Col. L.) to the Inquisition, 
which was situated about five miles from the city. 
It was surrounded with a wall of great strength, and 
defended by a company of soldiers. When we ar- 
rived at the walls, I addressed one of the sentinels, 
and summoned the holy fathers to surrender to the 
imperial army, and open the gates of the Inquisition. 
The sentinel, who was standing on the wall, ap- 
peared to enter into conversation for a moment 
with some one within, at the close of which he pre- 
sented his musket, and shot one of my men. This 
was the signal of attack, and I ordered my troops to 
fire upon those who appeared on the walls. 

It was soon obvious that it was an unequal war- 
fare. The walls of the Inquisition were covered 
with the soldiers of the holy office ; there was also 
a breast work upon the wall, behind which they 
partially exposed themselves as they discharged 
their muskets. Our troops were in the open plain, 
and exposed to a destructive fire. We had no can- 



INQUISITION IN SPAIN. ^33 

non, nor could we scale the walls, and the gates 
successfully resisted all attempts at forcing them. I 
could not retire and send for cannon to break 
through the walls without giving them, time to lay a 
train for blowing us up. I saw that it was necessary 
to change the mode of attack, and directed some 
trees to be cut down and trimmed, to be used as bat- 
tering rams. Two of these were taken up by detach- 
ments of men, as numerous as could work to advan- 
tage, and brought to bear upon the walls with all the 
power which they could exert, while the troops kept 
up a fire to protect them from the fire poured upon 
them from the walls. Presently the walls began to 
tremble, a breach was made, and the imperial troops 
rushed into the Inquisition. Here we met with an 
incident, which nothing but Jesuitical effrontery is 
equal to. The inquisitor general, followed by the 
father confessors in their priestly robes, all came out 
of their rooms, as we were making our way into the 
interior of the Inquisition, and with long faces, and 
their arms crossed over their breasts, their fingers 
resting on their shoulders, as though they had been 
deaf to all the noise of the attack and defence, and 
had just learned what was going on, they addressed 
themselves in the language of rebuke to their own 
soldiers, saying, " Whij do you fight our friends^ the 
French 7'' I 

Their intention, no doubt, was to make us think 
that this defence was wholly unauthorized by them, 
hoping, if they could make us believe that they were 
friendly, they should have a better opportunity, in the 
confusion of the moment, to escape. Their artifice 
was too shallow, and did not succeed. I caused 



434 



DESTRUCTION OF THE 



them to be placed under guard, and all the soldiers 
of the Inquisition to he secured as prisoners. We 
then proceeded to examine all the rooms of the stately 
edifice. We passed through room after room ; found 
all perfectly in order, richly furnished, with altars 
and crucifixes, and wax candles in abundance, but 
could discover no evidences of iniquity being ])rac- 
iised there, nothing of those peculiar features which 
we expected to find in an Inquisition. We found 
5^plendid paintings, and a rich and extensive library. 
Here was beauty and splendor, and the most perfect 
order on which my eyes had ever rested. The 
arcliitecture, the proportions were perfect. The 
ceiling and floors of wood were scoured and highly 
polished. The marble floors were arranged with a 
strict regard to order. There was everything to 
please tiie eye and gratify a cultivated taste ; but 
where were those horrid instruments of torture of 
which we had been told, and where those dungeons 
in which human beings were said to be buried alive? 
We searched in vain. The holy father assured us 
that they had been belied; that we had seen all; 
and I was prepared to give up the search, convinced 
ihat this Inquisition was diflerent from others of 
which I had heard. 

But Col. De Lile was not so ready as myself to 
give up the search, and said to me, '' Colonel, you 
are commander to-day, and as you say, so it must 
be ; but if you will be advised by me, let this marble 
floor be examined. Let water be brought and poured 
upon it, and we Vv^ill watch and see if there is any 
place through which it passes more freely than 
others" I replied to him, '• Do as you please, colo- 



INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 435 

ncl, ' and ordered water to be brought accordingly. 
The slabs of marble were large and beautifully 
polifi'hed. When the water had been poured over 
the floor, much to the dissatisfa.ction of the inquisi- 
tors, a careful examination was made of every seam 
in the floor, to see if the water passed through. 
Presently Col. De Lile exclaimed that he had found 
it. By the side of one of these marble slabs the wa- 
ter passed through fast, as though there was an 
opening beneath. All hands were now at work for 
further discovery; the oflicers with their swords, 
and the soldiers with their bayonets, seekmg to clear 
out the seam and pry up the slab ; others with the 
butts of their muskets striking the slab with all their 
might to break it, while the priests remonstrated 
against our desecrating their holy and beautiful 
house. While thus engaged, a soldier, who was 
striking with the butt of his musket, struck a spring, 
and the marble slab flew up. Then the faces of the 
inquisitors grew pale as Belshazzar, when the hand- 
writing appeared on the wall ; they trembled all over. 
Beneath the marble slab, now partly up, there was 
a stair-case. I stepped to the altar, and took from 
the candlestick one of the candles four feet in length, 
which was burning, that I might explore the room 
below. As I was doing this, I was arrested by one 
of the inquisitors, v/ho laid his hand gently on my 
arm, and with a very demure and holy look said, 
" My son, you must not take those lights with your 
bloody hands , they are holy." — " Well,'' I said, " I 
will take a holy thing to slied light on iniquity ; T 
will bear the responsibility !" I took the candle, 
and proceeded down the staircase. As we readied 



436 DESTRUCTION OF THE 

the foot of the stairs we entered a large square room; 
which was called the Hall of Judgment. In the 
centre of it was a large block, and a chain fastened 
to it. On this they had been accustomed to place 
the accused, chained to his seat. On one side of the 
room was one elevated seat called the Throne of 
Judgment. This the Inquisitor General occupied, 
and on either side were seats less elevated, for the 
holy fathers when engaged in the solemn business of 
the Holy Inquisition. 

From this room we proceeded to the right, and 
obtained access to small cells, extending the entire 
length of the edifice ; and here such sights were pre- 
sented as we hoped never to see again. 

These cells were places of solitary confinement, 
where the wretched objects of inquisitorial hate were 
confined year after year, till death released them 
from their sufferings, and there their bodies were 
suffered to remain until they were entirely decayed, 
and the rooms had become fit for others to occupy. 
To prevent this being offensive to those who occu- 
pied the inquisition, there were flues or tubes extend- 
ing to the open air, sufliciently capacious to carry 
off the odor. In these cells we found the remains 
of some who had paid the debt of nature ; some of 
them had been dead apparently but a short time, 
while of others nothing remained but their bones, 
still chained to the floor of their dungeon. 

In other cells we found living sufferers of both 
sexes and of every age, from three score years and 
ten down to fourteen or fifteen years — all naked as 
when born into the world ! and all in chains ! Here 
were old men and aged women, who had been shut 



INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 437 

up for many years. Here, too, were the middle 
aged, and the young man and the maiden of four- 
teen years old. The soldiers immediately went to 
work to release these captives from their chains, and 
took from their knapsacks their overcoats and other 
clothing, which they gave to cover their nakedness. 
They were exceedingly anxious to bring them out to 
the light of day; but Col. L., aware of the danger, 
had food given them, and then brought them gradu- 
ally to the light, as they were able to bear it. 

We then proceeded, said Col. L., to explore ano- 
ther room on the left. Here we found the instru- 
ments of torture, of every kind which the ingenuity 
of men or devils could invent. Col. L. here de- 
scribed four of these horrid instruments. The first 
was a machine by which the victim was confined, and 
then, beginning with the fingers, every joint in the 
hands, arms, and body, were broken or drawn one 
after another, until the victim died. The second 
was a box, in Avhich the head and neck of the vic- 
tim were so closely confined by a screw that he 
could not move in any way. Over the box was a 
vessel, from which one drop of water a second fell 
upon the head of the victim — every successive drop 
falling upon precisely the same place on the head, 
suspended the circulation in a few moments, and put 
the sufferer in the most excruciating agony. The 
third was an infernal juachine, laid horizontally, to 
which the victim was bound ; the machine then 
being placed between two beams, in which were 
scores of knives so fixed that, by turning the machine 
with a crank, the flesh of the sufferer was torn from 
his limbs all in small pieces. The fourth surpassed 



438 DESTRUCTTON OF THB 

the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was a 
beautiful woman, or large doll, richly dressed, with 
arms extended, ready to embrace its victim. Arouna 
her feet a semi-circle was drawn. The victim who 
passed over this fatal mark, touched a spring, which 
caused the diabolical engine to open ; its arms clasped 
him, and a thousand knives cut him into as many 
pieces in the deadly embrace. 

Col. L. said that the sight of these engines of 
infernal cruelty kindled the rage of the soldiers to 
fury. They declared that every inquisitor and sol- 
dier of the inquisition should be put to the torture. 
Their rage was ungovernable. Col. L. did not 
oppose them ; they might have turned their arms 
against him, if he had attempted to arrest their work. 
They began with the holy fathers. The first they 
put to death in the machine for breaking joints. 
The torture of the inquisitor put to death by the 
dropping of water on his head was most excrucia- 
ting. The poor man cried out in agony to be taken 
from the fatal machine. The inquisitor general 
was brought before the infernal engine called "The 
Yirgin." He begs to be excused. " No," said they 
"you have caused others to kiss her, and now you 
must do it." They interlocked their bayonets so as 
to form large forks, and with these pushed him over 
the deadly circle. The beautiful image instantly 
prepared for the embrace, eloped him in its arms, 
and he was cut into innumerable pieces. Col. L. 
said, that he witnessed the torture of four of them — 
his heart sickened at the awful scene — and he left 
the soldiers to wreak their vengeance on the last 
guilty inmate of that prison-house of hell. 



INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 4^0 

In the mean time it was reported through Madrid 
that the prisons of the Inquisition were broken open, 
and multitudes hastened to the fatal spot. And oIi, 
what a meeting was there ! It was like a resurrec- 
tion ! About a hundred who had been buried for 
many years were now restored to life. There were 
fathers who found their long lost daughters ; wives 
were restored to their husbands, sisters to their bro- 
thers, and parents to their children ; and there were 
some who could recognize no friend among the 
multitude. The scene was such as no tongue can 
describe. 

When the multitude had retired, Col. L. caused 
the library, paintings, furniture, &c., to be removed, 
and having sent to the city for a wagon load of pow- 
der, he deposited a large quantity in the vaults 
beneath the building, and placed a slow match in 
connection with it. All had withdrawn at a dis- 
tance, and in a few moments there was a most joyful 
sight to thousands. The walls and turrets of the 
massive structure rose majestically towards the 
heavens, impelled by the tremendous explosion, and 
fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins. 
The Inquisition was no more ! — Phil. Christ. Obs. 
19* 



AURICULAR CONFESSION 



POPISH NUNNERIES 



WILLIAM HOGAjN. 

FORMERLY A KOMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, AND AUTHOB OJT 
'POPERY AS IT WAS AND AS IT IB.' 



VOLUME II 



HARTFORD: 
Pl'BLISHED BY SILAS ANDRUS AND SON. 

1854. 



fcutcrtd according to A.v, of Congress, in the year 10*8, 

Bt WU. LlaM HOOAN, 

la the Clerk's OfBco of the District uourt of the District of Msssachusett*. 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND VOLUME, 



A CLOSE observer of tJie past and present re- 
ligious and political condition of this country, 
cannot fail to see an evident and manifest 
change in both, especially during the last ten 
or twenty years. It may not appear as plain to 
those who have always resided upon the soil, 
as it does to others, who have only been natur- 
aUzed or incorporated amongst them. This is 
not to be wondered at. It is almost natural 
that it should be so. A parent, who is accus- 
tomed to see his child every day, and perhaps 
every hour in the day, cannot always perceive 
how fast he grows in height and size. A 
stranger, who only sees him at distant inter- 
vals, will perceive the change much sooner. 
The child will grow, and acquire almost the 
attitudes and proportions of manhood, before 
the parents can reahze the fact that he is no 



444 PREFACE. 

longer a child, but a full grown man. It is un- 
doubtedly upon some similar principle, we can 
account for the fact that Americans do not see, 
as soon as others among them, the fatal change 
wliich is progressively, but steadily and surely, 
taldng place in the pohtical and rehgious con- 
dition of this country. 

If I am correct in my own observations 
upon events as they whirl past me with almost 
dazzling rapidity, there is something wrong 
amongst us, — something is "rotten in Den- 
mark," — some cogs are out of place, or out 
of proportion, in the machinery of our moral 
and pohtical systems. Some foreign elements 
must have been surreptitiously thrown in and 
mixed up with them, which have deranged all 
their operations. 

It is, in my apprehension, the duty of every 
man who values freedom of thought, freedom 
of speech, and the free exercise of rehgion, to 
examine and see what is the cause of this de- 
rangement, which retards and disturbs our 
happiness, as Christians and as citizens. "What 
has swelled and rendered turgent and muddy 
those sweet and gently-flowing streams of peace 
and brotherly love, on the banks of which, the 
early settlers of this country used to sit for days 
undisturbed, singing praises and hallelujahs to 



PREFACE. 415 

Jehovah, who deUvered them, in his great 
mercy, from lands of bondage, tyranny, and 
idolatry. 

I have looked into the subject ; I have ex- 
amined, with all the care and dihgence in my 
power, the reasons and causes why free-born 
Americans were not advancing more rapidly 
both in pohtical science and practical piety; 
and the result of my most anxious, dihgent, and 
impartial inquiry is, that it is attributable solely 
to the mtroduction of Popery among them, and 
the consequent direct and indhect interference 
of the Court of Rome with our governm*^nt. 
The royal Pope of Rome, (as I have heretofore 
demonstrated to the satisfaction of every man 
whose eyes and ears were not closed against 
truth,) claims jurisdiction, spiritual and tem 
poral, over the kingdoms of this world; and 
his untiring and obstinate efforts to obtain an 
universal acknowledgment of this mad and 
presumptuous claim, has occasioned, and is 
now producing, (even in this country,) more 
strife, and contributes more to the decay of 
reUgious and even pohtical ethics, than any 
other circumstance recorded in the history of 
the human race. 

There have been but few, if any, on the long 
list of Popes and Anti-Popes, who were not 



446 PREFACE. 

themselves dabblers and traffickers in politics ; 
and there is scarcely one among them whose 
private history does not show him to be an 
abettor and an accomplice m the vilest crimes 
and immoralities ; so much and so deeply so, 
that we are astounded at the single inquiry 
how such characters could ever have obtained 
influence over any portion of their fellow- 
beings. This, however, is not a matter of sur- 
prise to me, nor does such an inquiry form any 
considerable portion of- the following pages ; 
but what more than astounds me, is, how 
Romish Popes and priests could, by any species 
of jugglery or legerdemain, deceive and im- 
pose upon the cool, reflecting, and calculating 
citizens of the United States: but reflection 
might have taught me better. 

So expert and versed in moral and pohtical 
jugglery are Popes, bishops, and priests, that 
they must be closely watched, otherwise their 
artful practices will deceive the most inteUi- 
gent spectators ; unless there may be amongst 
them, perchance, some individual who has 
been trained himself to a knowledge of their 
arts. A Popish juggler cannot deceive me. I 
understand the whole of his operations, as well 
as he does himself He may astonish the natives 
by his "wonderful feats," but with all his leger- 



PREFACE. 447 

demain lie cannot deceive nie in any of liis 
movements. 

Under these circumstances, I felt it my duty 
to raise the curtain behind which I knew were 
concealed those secret springs by which the 
machinery of Popery is moved in these United 
States. The most complicated part of the 
whole machine, — and the part most difficult 
to be understood, — is that which is called 
Auricular Confession. His Royal Holiness of 
Rome has obtained a patent, or something like 
it, for this particular wheel within a wheel^of 
the machine. In almost all Catholic countries, 
no one dare examine or take a model from it. 
If he does, he incurs the penalty of being 
cursed by the Pope. An awful excommunica- 
tion is immediately issued against him. Every 
thing the Pope does is awful. If he gives liis 
blessing, it is awful; his curse is awful; his 
person is awful; he cannot be approached un- 
less with profound reverence. His big toe is 
awful; no one can kiss it, unless on bended 
knees, and after the performance of sundry 
'puerilities, as Bishop Eastburn, of Boston, very 
properly calls all such fooleries. 

It does not appear as yet, that his Hohness 
has taken out any patent for Auricular Confes- 
slon in this country ; and as I know not how 



448 PREFACE. 

soon he may gull American heretics to gi'ant him 
one, I have taken the hberty of exhibiting a 
'model of it, for pubhc inspection. There are 
parts of this model which may appear revolting 
to the dehcate sensibihties of my readers ; but 
let them reflect that the original is formed and 
put together by the sacred hands of His Hoh- 
ness the Pope and his pious priests. I act only 
in the capacity of an artist, or a sculptor, who is 
permitted, even by the rules of good taste and 
dehcacy, to give likenesses, in painting and 
statuary, of the most deformed and unsightly 
objects. They are only required to be true and 
faithful to nature and the originals from which 
the likenesses are taken. I have done no more 
than this, in the model or picture which I have 
drawn of Auricidar Confession ; and those who 
do not choose to examine it, are, of course, 
at perfect hberty to pass it by unnoticed. The 
day is not far distant when it will be found in 
every family in the United States. 

I have the honor to remain 

the pubUc's humble servant, 

WILLIAM HOGAN. 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND POPISH 
NUNNERIES. 



It has been observed by an eminent writer, that 
•'book-making is something like pouring water from 
one vessel into another, and then pouring it back 
again." There is much truth in the observation; 
this is obvious to every general reader. There is 
scarcely a work issued from the press, which is not 
substantially a copy of something that has been written 
before upon the same subject. The old water-casks, 
which have been as it were fixtures for centuries, are 
now being dug out of their places, and the waters con- 
tained in them are changed into new casks, having a 
more sightly appearance, and a more polished exterior. 
This, however, is more apt to be the case in the writings 
of theologians, than in those of any other body of 
men. Limited as my own reading has been, I do not 
recollect ever having perused a volume upon theology, 
especially from the pen of an American theologian, 
which I had not seen or read (at least in part) before. 
How to account for this I know not. Assuredly this 
land of freedom has among its theologians and eon- 



450 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

troversialists men of the finest minds — minds like 
their own rivers, overflowing with the deepest, the 
clearest, most limpid and purest streams of thought — 
minds in which the ever-rolling ocean of time has had, 
as yet, scarcely an opportunity of depositing much of 
its accumulated impurities — minds which, if their 
great powers were evolved and brought to bear on the 
moral and civil condition of our fellow citizens, would 
give us a new era or a new world of thought and mor- 
als — strong, permanent, diffusive, progressive — and 
as different from those of olden times, as our new and 
beautiful republic is from some of the aged, faded, 
sickly and consumptive governments of former days. 

It is difficult, I own, to form a new system of any 
kind, especially a new system of thought or morals; 
but still such a thing is not impossible. There never 
was, and never will be, a system constructed without 
having to encounter great and almost insuperable 
obstacles ; first, in its formation, and secondly, in its 
application and various bearings. 

It was difficult, for instance, to form our own system 
of civil government. Its very conception was for some 
time looked upon as a wild theory. Such a thing was 
not dreamed of in any work upon political ethics 
taught in our seminaries or schools, in the days of its 
founders, yet the system was established, and has 
hitherto fully answered all the expectations of its 
friends ; but even if our comparatively new form or 
system of government did not entirely succeed — if it 
even failed and tumbled to atoms, that would not be a 
sufficient argument against making the experiment, for 
even in its ruins, fragments may be found which may 



POPISH NUNNfiRIES. 451 

be useful to posterity. Yes, as the poet beautifully 
expresses it, 

•* You may break — you may rain the vase, if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 

The failure of any system, as 1 have observed, is 
not a sufficient argument against its practicability, or 
its Ultimate usefulness ; and hence it appears to me 
Btrange that American minds, so fertile in all expedi- 
ents to advance the temporal interests of man, should 
be so barren and unproductive of any system of 
thought or morals exclusively their own, and entirely 
independent of the corrupt and vitiated systems which 
have bewildered Europe and its moral philosophers 
for so many centuries. It is passing strange that the 
theologians and professors of moral theology in this 
New World of ours — if they can do no better — do 
not unite upon some plan to exclude from among 
them institutions which all admit to be calculated to 
demoralize the rising generation. 

I am happy to find that there is nov/ a system of 
thought and morals, or something like it, to be found 
amongst us, which is peculiarly American; it is de- 
nominated or called the Christian League. Let me be 
understood, when I use the term system. By system 
I mean an arrangement of objects or purposes so as to 
make them agree and unite. The Christian League 
I believe may be called a system ; its members are 
united in the accomplishment of given objects. But if 
not strictly speaking a system itself, it has within it 
materials out of which a noble one of thought and 
morals can be formed. It is yet in its chrysalis, but the 



452 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

sun of righteousness, which I trust the dark clouds of 
superstition that now portentously hang over us shall 
aever.be permitted to hide from our view, will soon 
;^arm it into maturity, and give it wings to fly and carry 
with it wherever it goeth, glad tidings of salvation. I 
do not agree with the leading members of the Christian 
League, in their modus operandi. I have taken the 
liberty of suggesting to them a different course of 
action from that which they have been pleased to 
adopt ; but I am with them, heart and soul. I shall 
support their measures, as far as I find them calculated 
to check the progress of Popery in the United States. 
If I cannot agree with them in their plan to effect this, 
I shall only say — and I say it with the utmost respect 
to each and every member of the Christian League — 

" If a better system thine, 
Impart it frankly, or make use of mine." 

I have suggested to the members of the Christian 
League^ to throw away from amongst them all appear- 
ance of sectarianism ; but I know not that they have 
done so ; the name or the society would indicate that 
they had;; but do facts warrant such an inference? 
The very reverse is the case. Their prominent speakers 
all belong to one denomination ; there may be a few 
exceptions, but there are not many ; the public presses 
which advocate the proceedings of the League, are 
generally supported by those of a particular creed. 
What is the inference? It is this: either other presses 
and other denominations of Christians are indifferent 
about the success of the League, or the members of 
the League are unwilling to hold any communion with 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 453^ 

them. The former cannot be the case ; the .atter must 
be, of course. This is not right, and if persevered 
in, must uhimately neutralize all the measures of an 
association which, if properly conducted, might evolve 
and mature one of the finest systems of thought and 
moral government that has ever been discovered. 1 
have suggested to the members of the Christian League, 
that they should have but one base, or one great moral 
trunk. I have advised them to partition this trunk, 
and divide it into branches, to be spread equally 
among all the followers of the law of God, and all 
the friends of civil rights. Then let every man do his 
duty ; let no man fancy that because of his elevation 
in the Church, or higher salary, his nature has been 
metamorphosed, or refined by any chemical process; 
let him not suppose himself sublimated by the sun- 
shine of personal popularity, which is fleeting as the 
wind; let each individual suppose — and history, as 
well as my own personal experience, enables me to 
assure him that he may do so without injustice — that 
the cause of morals and civil rights has one common 
enemy in the United States, which must be not only 
defeated, but annihilated — yes, annihilated. While 
that enemy lives, the cause of morality cannot flourish, 
and the civil rights of man are in danger. Need I tell 
the reader who or what that enemy is ? It is Popery. 
A healthy slate of morals, and Popery cannot exist in 
any country, any kingdom, or any clime ; the air which 
gives vitality to Popery, and sustains its existence, is 
death to morality — aye, that very morality which, as 
Americans, we boast of, and consider to be the very 
incarnation even of our civil rights. It is true, that 



454 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

under the guidance of reason, several forms of govern- 
ment have been established, but all have been imperfect 
and unsatisfactory to man in the various stages and 
mutations of the social system. If we look back and 
examine the history, the nature and character of those 
improvements which have been made in society ever 
since its genesis, we shall find that the finger of 
religion, ever true to its purpose, invariably pointed 
and invited the attention of man to them ; we shall 
find also that whenever or wherever this has not been 
the case, the people have not prospered ; we find in 
every thing truly valuable to man, whether in his 
social or individual capacity, the hand of religion, and 
the almost omnipotency of moral principle. This is 
eminently conspicuous at the present day, and perhaps 
as much so in this as any country in the world, and 
hence it is that we should be peculiarly grateful and 
vigilant in removing from among us any and every 
cause which may directly or indirectly have a tendency 
to injure the morals of our people ; for amid the ruin 
of our morals shall surely be found the elements of 
our national downfall. 

I have alluded to this subject heretofore, in my. 
books on Popery. I did not expect that all would 
approve of those books. I was aware that many, even 
among Protestants, would find fault with several of 
the expressions used in the small volume which I have 
recently written, entitled Auricular Confession, to which 
these pages are a sequel. That Papists should find 
fault with all that I have written, does not at all sur- 
prise me ; but that Protestants should find any — though 
I am happy to find that very few have found any — is 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 455 

a matter of some surprise to me. It must be owing to 
the fact that they know not and understand not what 
auricular confession is, or how it is made. That 
Americans in general should know nothing upon this 
subject, and be horrified at the bare relation of its ini- 
quitous details, is a fact which can be easily understood 
and explained. They have never made auricular con- 
fession the subject of their study, and hence the horror 
they feel at its iniquitous and private abominations. I 
must frankly confess, however, that it is a matter of 
surprise that American theologians should be so entirely 
unacquainted with the writings of popish doctors and 
popish priests, as not to find all the apparently objec- 
tionable expressions in my books in common use 
among them. There is not to be found a single 
volume among the writers of the Popish Church, on 
the subject of auricular confession, in which my state- 
ments are not corroborated, and that in language far 
more objectionable than mine — language so gross and 
indelicate that I could not in justice to public taste- 
and delicacy introduce it into my books. Those who 
have read my book on auricular confession, may recol- 
lect the questions which I have accused Popish bishops 
and priests of putting to their young female penitents, 
"^ and which some liberal Protestants say could not have 
been the case. I now assert, without any qualification 
whatever, and without any mental reservation or equiv- 
ocation, that there is not in the United States a priest 
nor bishop, who has heard the confessions of married 
or single women, without asking them such questions 
as I have given in my book. I ask Bishop Fenwick of 
this city, or any other Roman Catholic priest or bishop 
20 



456 AURICULAR CONTEi^SlON AND 

living, to contradict me if he can. I challenge those 
females, young or old, who have ever been in the habit 
of confessing their sins to priests, to come forward and 
say, We have been at confession, and such questions 
as those contained in Hogan's book have never been 
put to us. 

The charges I have made against Romish priests 
are of a serious character. If false they can be refuted. 
I am alone ; there are nearly three millions of Koman 
Catholics in the United States, and if there is among 
this vast multitude, an individual who can say and 
give such evidence of the truth of his statement, as 
will satisfy any Court of Eqaity, that I have done in- 
justice to popes, priests or bishops, in charging them 
with tampering with their female penitents in the con- 
fessional, in order the more easily to debauch them, I 
will publicly acknowledge that I am guilty of slander, 
and have wronged them. I trust that after this, Protest- 
ant theologians will take more pains in reading the 
works of Popish moralists, with which, as far as I have 
the honor of their acquaintance, they are lamentably un- 
acquainted. I saw a strong instance of this the other 
evening. I chanced to meet at the house of a mutual 
friend, with one of the most learned and pious theo- 
logians of the Presbyterian Church in this or any other ' 
country in the world. He very courteously observed 
that he did not question my veracity, but that it ap- 
peared incredible to him that Popish priests or bish- 
ops, would put such questions to married or single 
women while confessing to them as I have accused 
rhem of. I listened in silent wonder to this great and 
good man ; for the moment I knew not what to say 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 457 

Here was a venerable American theologian — himself 
a living, moving theological library — the embodiment 
of American Protestant theology, doubling, or at least 
hesitating to credit the fact, that Romish bishops and 
priests put to their female penitents the gross, licen- 
tious, libidinous questions contained in my book on 
confession. The past, the present and the future, 
seemed to rise and rush before me in imagination, and 
I could not help exclaiming in my own mind, woe be 
to this land of my adoption, woe be to its generous 
and hospitable people, if even its patriarchs and wise 
men, such as he who now stands before me, and 
whose life has been a beautiful comment upon the 
purity and simplicity of the Christian religion, cannot 
fully understand, even at this late period, the corrup- 
tions which the drag nets of Popery are bringing 
amongst us and strewing on the paths of our hitherto 
virtuous mothers and chaste daughters. 

It is impossible to find a work on confession written 
by a Popish priest in full communion with his church, 
which does not contain almost the very language I 
have used. I finally satisfied my learned friend that I 
was correct in all my statements ; I explained to him 
the position of a Romish priest in the confessional, 
and that of a young lady confessing to him, and never 
shall I forget the remarks of the venerable gentleman 
on that occasion. " If," said he, " my wife or daughter 
were dressed in the finest silk, and then put into a 
hogshead of mud and rolled down a hill, I should as 
soon expect to find their dresses without a stain, as 
find their minds and morals pure and chaste, after 
going any length of time to confession to a Romish 



458 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

priest." And he was right ; the principles of popery, as 
taught in Romish confessional, and those of purity, 
are antagonist principles. 

We are supposed to have about thirty-six millions 
of papists — as I have heretofore stated — in the world. 
Look, American Protestants, at the condition of these 
your bretheren, and tremble lest their present condition 
be yours at some future period ; look over the world, 
boundless almost as it is, and great, and glorious, and 
moral as its inhabitants might be ; what is it now, 
when it seems to be undergoing, as it were, a process 
of self regeneration, — when its hitherto hidden treas- 
ures, almost impatient of restraint, seem to leap and 
bound into existence, to offer themselves to the uses and 
purposes of man, at the mere bid and beck of science ? 
What is the condition of man in this glorious world of 
ours, under the influence of popery ? The largest, the 
widest, and most fertile portion of the globe is under 
Popish influence ; the soil of these countries which 
Papists inhabit is rich, their fields are fair, and their 
valleys beautiful ; all the products of nature thrive in 
them; the sun of heaven shines over them in all its lumr- 
nous magnificence ; every thing seems to be sent from 
heaven, for man's use ; every thing seems to aspire to 
heaven and to be happy. Man alone decays in these 
Popish countries ; man alone is unhappy ; the longings 
and heavenward aspirations of his immortal soul are 
checked, and he withers and degenerates into a being 
less happy than the beast of the field, and far more de- 
graded, because acquired and superinduced inferiority, 
is much more degrading than that which is native and 
original. The moral degenerac)^ which we see in 



'popish nunneries. 459 

those countries where Popery, with its confessions, 
extreme unctions, and other debasing fooleries, prevail, 
is not to be attributed to any decay in the natural 
vigor of the human mind. We have no reason to sup- 
pose that the mind was created in a less vigorous state 
in countries where Popery prevails, than in others 
w^here it does not. I have frequently conversed with 
anatomists of distinguished eminence, who have 
visited all the countries inhabited by Catholics, as 
well as those inhabited by Protestants, and I have 
learned from all that there is no difference in the ana- 
tomical construction of their hearts and brains ; still, it 
is evident to all, at least to every man of science and 
observation, that there is a difference in the mental 
faculties of those who are born and live under Popish 
domination, and those who are born and live under a 
free government of civil rights. Let us, for instance, 
take a Papist fresh from Italy, Spain, Mexico, or 
even Ireland ; place him in the same condition with 
a free-born Am.erican Protestant, and see the difference 
between them ; the latter is active, quick, intelligent, 
full of thought, full of life and enterprise ; the former 
in nine cases out of ten, is inactive, of sluggish mind, 
and rarely aspires to excellence in any thing really 
useful. See, for instance, a Papist when he lands 
upon our shores ; so tame and so accustomed to Pop- 
ish tyranny has he been, that he crouches beneath 
the nod or frown of a priest the moment he sees him. 
Fear, of course, must become the predominant passion 
of all people and countries where Popery prevails, and 
yet, unaccountable as it may appear, this new world 
of ours is not only admitting but inviting Popery and 



460 AURICULAR CONFESSION* AND 

its adherents into it, and offers them the rights of free- 
men, with a full knowledge of the fact that they are 
the subjects of a foreign king, — the Pope of Rome. 
Popery — that sink of the universe, as an elegant 
writer, who is himself a Roman Catholic, expresses it, 
— is invited into the United States, and its votaries 
cherished by a free, generous, but unsuspecting people. 
I have often conversed with American Protestants 
of distinction upon this subject, and regret finding 
that many of them — especially those of the Unitarian 
creed — are strgng advocates of Popery, and in favor 
of its introduction among our people. Their argu- 
ments are plausible, and no doubt appear to the 
superficial reader worthy of all consideration. What- 
ever, say Unitarians, or liberal Christians, have been 
the vices, profligacies, or ambition, of Popes and 
Papists in former ages, they should be overlooked, in 
consideration of the great and grand objects which 
they had in view, and the vast and mighty interests 
which were then at stake. Religion — the Christian 
religion — say the liberals of the present day, was then 
in its infancy, without any other protection save that 
which its own god-like purity threw around it ; it was 
committed to the care of early fathers or papas — 
from which the word Pope takes its origin — of the 
church ; the struggle between them and the priests of 
Paganism was fierce ; it w^as terrible ; and well did the 
former do their duty — nobly and faithfully did they 
struggle for the ascendancy of Christianity, and its 
establishment among the nations of the north. To do 
this effectually, and to establish a hierarchy exclusively 
then* own, independent of any other, was indispen- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 4gl 

sable. To eiTect this, was one of the most momentoua 
and grandest projects that ever entered the inind of 
man at that early period of society. We all know from 
history, the difficulties which the early Papas or Popes 
— not of the Romish church, but of the Christian 
church — had to encounter, in their contest with Pagan- 
ism. We also know — and no man who believes in 
the Christian religion doubts it — that gi-eat credit is 
due to them, for what they have done against the 
Turks. They have left on record many evidences of 
their ardent zeal, sincere piety, and deep humility. But 
does it follow, that because the fathers of the Christian 
church have done so much for Christianity, by being 
the depositories of its principles, and active defenders 
of its faith — does it follow, I say, that Romish Popes 
or Romish Papas, are equally entitled to our respect, 
support, and confidence ? 

Do these liberal Christians know that there is as 
wide a difference between the Papas of the early 
Christian church, and those of the modern Romish 
church, as there is between the notorious Himes, of the 
Millerite church, and the learned Dr. Gannett, of the 
Unitarian society ? Is it sound logic to infer that 
because the fathers of the Christian church were good 
men, and should be welcomed wherever they went, 
that the present fathers of the Romish Church are also 
good men and must be received into this country, 
with their interminable retinue of monks, nuns, friars, 
and other mock reverend and semi-reverend male and 
female vagabonds, who precede and follow them ? 
Liberal Christians will pardon me when I say, that 
nothing but a total unacquaintance with history, with 



462 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

man's nature, with man's rights, and unacquaintance 
with all that tends to promote human happiness, and 
to elevate man in the scale of creation, could force 
them to such a conclusion. 

The inference is not to be found in the premises ; 
It is bad logic ; it is not warranted by facts, or by- 
history, sacred or profane ; indeed, I much fear, that he 
who knows any thing of the history of Popery in 
ancient or modern times, and yet encourages its 
growth in this country, might without uncharitable- 
ness, or any sectarian prejudice, be classed with 
infidels and traitors. The man who, with the pages 
of history open before him, can encourage a system 
nicknamed religion, and embodying within its funda- 
mental articles of faith, the duty of auricular confes- 
sion as essential to salvation, has no claim to the 
name of Christian ; nor can he who would cheer on 
the mad followers of Popery to rend this union to 
pieces, and substitute in its stead a Popish monarchy, 
be a true patriot. He is a traitor, in the broadest, 
fullest, and most unqualified sense of the word. 

I have shown, in the first volume of this book, that 
Popery does those things to which I have just alluded ; 
the accusations which I have brought against Popery, 
have been of such serious magnitude and traitorous 
character, that Americans could scarcely credit them, 
and some have looked upon them as only ebullitions 
of anger, which reflection would mitigate ; and that rea- 
son, the legitimate monarch of all the intellectual facul- 
ties, would in due time restrain them within proper 
bounds ; but I again reiterate the charges, and assure 
my readers that all I have said against Popery, as a 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 463 

corrupt system of policy and morals, is not only true, 
as we see in history, but falls short of what I know of 
my own knowledge, and which I believe with the cer- 
tainty of faith. 

I have patiently, laboriously, and diligently, exam- 
ined the doctrines and practices of the Popish Chm'ch, 
especially since the days of Hildebrand, and the result 
of my serious inquiries has t)een, that the church and 
its bishops have been, up to this day, abusing the 
credulity of mankind, and trying how they could best 
play upon the -passions and degrade the human intel- 
lect. 

History hands down to us the names of about three 
hundred popes and anti-popes, and I would challenge 
even that morbid liberalism, which seems to be gaining 
ground, and is now ycleped philosophy, whether Pagan- 
ism in its darkest days, or its history in its vilest pages, 
ever exhibited to its followers any system of rehgion or 
morals so revolting as that which each of those Popes 
has in succession endeavored to enforce and impose 
upon mankind. It will be said by some of those phi- 
losophers to whom I allude, that I have gone too far 
in my writings against the Popish church and Popish 
priests — that I proved too much, and, according to 
that well received action — " quod nimis probat nihil 
probat^^ — proved nothing; that I have colored my 
landscape too highly, &c. The reverse is the case ; I 
have not seen Popery at a distance, as these liber alists 
have, nor as a traveller might see a landscape. The 
latter may be deceived, he may see or fancy that he sees 
a brilliant hue upon the summit of a distant moun- 
tain, just as the liberalists see Popery at a distance ; 
20* 



164 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

but upon a nearer approach and closer examination, 
he will find that ho such ihing exists, but that it is 
produced perhaps by the reflection of the sun, which 
gives it some unreal appearance. That mountain top, 
which at a distance may seem to the traveller so sub- 
limely beautiful, often on examination is found to be 
but a vast crater, frightful to look at, emitting nothing 
but some disgusting substance which carries with it 
death, destruction, and sorrow, wherever it goes. Will 
the liber alists^ philosophers.^ — or whatever else they 
must be called — please to recollect, in their comments 
upon my books, that I have not viewed Popery at a 
distance ; I have seen it in its roseate as well as in its 
darkest colors ; the former I found unreal and transient 
as that with which a beautiful setting sun invests the 
mountain's cold snow-top; the latter I found to be 
true in every color, even to the minute touch. Will 
these philosophers examine Popery as I have done : 
let them stand upon its summit as I have done, and. 
then look into that unfathomable crater, the court of 
Rome, from which it vomits and spews forth its cor- 
ruptions, its confessions, its indulgences, its penances, 
its masses, its purgatories, its pilgrimages, its transub- 
stantiations, its ,beads, its Jesuits, its treasons, its poi- 
sons, its recipes for compounding the best and most 
subtle poisons, its modes of procuring abortion and 
checking female fecundity — let him keep a close 
watch on the movements of Popish bishops in this 
country, especially Hughes of New York, and Fen- 
wick of Boston, and others, as I have done for years, 
and they shall find that, frightful as is the picture 
which I have given of Popery, it falls short — far short 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



465 



of the reality. I have scarcely touched upon those 
features of Romanism, which are most abhorrent tc* 
the morals, and dangerous to the civil rights of our 
citizens ; but it is not too late ; it can be done yet ; 1 
owe them much, and if God spares me I will pay 
them by instalments ; I have enlisted without bounty 
or service money into the ranks of the Christian oppo- 
nents of Popery — not for any given time, but during 
the war, or for life. While I live. Popery has in me an 
opponent, who can neither be bribed nor intimidated ; 
but I regret to see that there are many who call them- 
selves Protestant Christians, exhibiting a wavering and 
craven spirit, in this general war against Popery which 
has at length commenced — afraid to come out openly 
against Popish doctrines, and yet feeling it their duty 
to do so. I pity such men — from my soul I pity 
them; church honors and church distinctions seem 
to be more sought for now, than those of heaven. 
Hundreds of Protestant clergymen are daily bedizen- 
ing themselves with D. D.'s and other such fooleries, 
while the great enemy of religion and civil rights is 
surrounding them, and ready, when the Pope of 
Rome gives the word of command, to fall upon them 
with destructive slaughter. 

Already I find myself (sicut meus est mos) imper 
ceptibly drifting from the point I set sail for, nor have 
I the least doubt that I shall find myself out of my 
reckoning- frequently, before I arrive at the end of my 
voyage. This, however, will only have the effect of 
rendering it more tedious, but I trust it will add some 
value to my observations and discoveries during my 
voyage. 



466 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

-I commenced this second volume with the single 
view of defining more clearly, the iniquities practised 
in the Romish church, under cover of auricular co7i- 
fession, and within the walls of Popish nunneries. I 
would now resume the subject, and show my fellow 
citizens, that the crimes and profligacies which I have 
imputed to the Romish church, have not been peculiar 
to any epoch or age of its existence — that it has been 
always corrupt — is now while I write corrupt, that its 
''^ery elements are founded on corruption, and that any 
contact with it, or between itself and our citizens, can- 
not fail to be ruinous to the morals and interests of 
our people. I have a double object in pursuing this 
course. The first is this: Papists admit that there 
have been corruptions in the Romish church, but say 
that they were only local, and never sanctioned by the 
church authoritatively ; secondly, they assert that my 
books on Popery are all old lies, culled from ancient 
heritical waiters, and that such deeds as I have 
imputed to their holy and infallible church, and 
immaculate bishops and priests n this country, have 
never taken place. 

I will here show, in a few words, that the evil deeds 
and corruptions, with which I have charged the Popish 
church, were not local, but general; and secondly, I 
propose to show that they were not peculiar to any 
age in the church, but have always existed and do 
exist at the present moment, not only in Europe and 
elsewhere, but in these United States. 

That Papists and myself may understand each 
other clearly, and that the public may understand 
both of us, I propose to the Papist to name any age 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 467 

of the Church he pleases, or any Pope he pleases, and 
I will show him that in that very age, and under that 
very Pope, nearly all the iniquities of which I have 
accused his Church, were justly charged, and sanc- 
tioned authoritatively by her then ruling executivCyOX 
infallible head, jast as she pleased to call it, whether 
that infallible head was a Pope or a General Council 
I say Pope, or General Councjl, because the question is 
not yet settled between Popish theologians, whether 
Iheir boasted infaUibility be invested in the Pope, 
speaking ex cathedra, or in a General Council legiti- 
mately — according to their understanding of the term 
— convened. 

Come on, Mr. -Popish Bishop or Priest ; advance, 
Mr. Bishop Hughes, of Jesuit and intrigue notoriety ; 
hold up your head, thou demure, plotting dunce, 
Bishop Fenwick, of Boston. Let us select the latter 
end of the eleventh, and beginning of the twelfth cen- 
turies. This is as favorable an epoch in the Infallible 
Church as you can possibly choose, to show the purity, 
loveliness, morality, and chastity, of her Popes and 
bishops. 

You recollect, right reverend and immaculate gen- 
tlemen, that Lothair Conti, afterwards called Innocent 
III., was then Pope ; now, gentlemen, I ask you, and 
I pray you may answer me fairly and honestly, whether 
your infallible church was, 6ven in that age, exempt 
from the abominations of which I have accused her? 
Be honest, for once in your life ; let me be able to 
record, in my future writings, one instance of truth 
being found among Jesuits and Popish priests, when 
speaking upon church affairs. 



468 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Are you prepared to deny the fact that jour church 
was then filled with the grossest abominations, and 
that every one of those abominations were sanctioned 
by Pope Innocent III. ? If you are prepared to deny 
this fact, I am prepared to brand upon the forehead of 
each of you, in letters which can never be erased, the 
words wilful and deliberate liar. You both, right 
reverend gentlemen, already know that I do nothing 
by halves ; and if I convict you of falsehood, you may 
rely upon it, that the iron with which I will brand you 
with the above letters, shall be heated to the very point 
of fusion, so that you shall be known as the sworn 
enemies of truth, religion, and the rights of man. 
Innocent III. is looked upon in the Roman Church, 
and by you, of course, as a perfect model of what a 
Popish bishop or priest ought to be ; any deviation 
from the faith which he professed, or example which 
he gave, in morals or politics, would be, and is now 
considered, by every true son of the Infallible Church, 
as heresy and treason against Popery. Let us now 
see what the faith of this inimitable model was ; we 
can best judge of it by his works; "the tree is known 
by its fruits." A very beautiful modern writer gives 
us the true character of Inaocent III. It is fair to 
judge of all the Popes as this man has been judged ; he 
is a correct model of the whole, and I doubt not but, 
taking him all and all, he is the best model that has 
been given of a Romish Pope. His greatest admirers 
admit its correctness ; the picture is true to the life , 
and if that ancient axiom, " ex ano disce omnes^^ be 
true, that is, if we can judge of all by one, a precious 
model of morals and policy is this Pope Innocent IIL 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 46^ 

I call the attention of my readers to the character of 
this man, or if Papists will Lave it so, of this god 
Pope, as given by an elegant writer of the present age: 

" In -his actions, principles, and the effects produced 
by both, we scarcely recognize a human being. He 
takes a stand wnoUy above that class of figures which 
form the ordinary pattern of history. The circum- 
stances of his time, and the faculties of his nature, 
make us seek rather for his resemblance in one of those 
wanderers from some higher star, or spirit dropped by 
accident among us, and in the garb of a man allowed 
to follow his original propensities, and to do evil which 
throws human mahgnity into the shade, by some power 
which in all cases exceeds the dimensions of human 
nature. Without charging the Pope with being alto- 
gether a devil, it must be acknowledged, that in many 
of his actions he nearly resembles that character." 

The pontificate of Innocent III., which we can find, 
upon examination, closely resembles that of all other 
Popes, is worthy the serious attention of statesmen of 
this country. Here our presidents, cabinets, senators, 
representatives, and governors, may learn how temporal 
power and Popish functions may be united together; 
they will see the nature, and understand better what is 
meant by that spiritual allegiance which Papists, even 
in this country, swear to the Pope of Rome, and 
which for twenty odd years I have been appealing to 
Americans to crush ; or deprive of the rights of citizen- 
ship, or punish as traitors every man who avowed such 
allegiance to a foreign king, which the Pope of Rome 
is acknowledged to be. Will Americans hear to the 
definition which Pope Innocent III. gives of a Romish 



470 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Popel It is admitted to be a coiTect definition, by 
every Roman Catholic, whether bishop, priest, or lay- 
man, in the United States. Hear you, then, Ameri- 
cans ! listen, you republicans — whigs, democrats, and 
all — and know ye henceforth, that a Pope is de- 
fined to be the vicegerent of Christ. If less than 
God, he is gi-eater than man ; the luminary of day ; 
the civil authority being only the pale orb of night. 
How would you, Americans, like to have such a man 
at your head? Take heed — there are three millions 
now of his subjects amongst you, and about thirty-three 
millions besides all over the world. Ask yourselves 
whether it is not at least possible that they may gain 
an ascendency in these United States, and wnrest from 
you and your posterity the inheritance which your 
forefathers left you ? Do not forget — I entreat of you 
never to forget — the alarming fact that during the 
last sixteen years, 731,380 foreigners have arrived at 
the port of New York alone. Three-fourths of these 
may be presumed to be Papists, and sworn to maintain 
the supremacy of their king, the Pope. 

Let it not be forgotten by American statesmen, that 
Papists have been at the bottom of every crusade 
that has ever been formed against the civil rights of 
men. Was it not a Pope, and that Pope no less a per- 
sonage than Innocent III., that tried to dethrone King 
John of England ? Was it not a Pope that fomented 
a crusade against the Hungarians, and endeavored to 
overthrow the King of Norway ? And finally, was it 
not a Pope, and that Pope the infallible Innocent II L 
— whom Bishops Hughes, Fenwick, and myself, have 
agreed upon as a fair sample from about three hundred 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 471 

Popes, who preceded and succeeded him — that waged 
a war of extermination against the mioffending and 
blameless Waldenses ? Was it not a Pope, and that 
Pope Innocent III., who in one year, by virtue of his 
divine authority, gave away three royal crowns ? This 
Innocent III. employed the infernal inquisition against 
the Albigenses. Will Americans take all these histor- 
ical truths into consideration. Let them read my books 
again, and then say whether I have done the Pope, 
bishops, and priests of the Eomish Church any injus- 
tice. I declare, in the language of another, that there 
is not to be found in the whole range of history, any 
body of men, who have inflicted upon humanity a 
greater amount of evil, than the Popes of Rome and 
their allies : and the grand instrument which enabled 
them to accomplish all this with impunity, and without 
detection, was the infamous and diabolical practice of 
auricular confession. " To rivet the chains of slavery," 
as another expresses it, " on souls as well as the bodies 
of men, too firmly to be thrown off, private, or as it is 
called, auricular confession of sins to a priest, was 
m^de an imperative duty of all Papists, at certain 
seasons of the year." " Of all the practices of the 
Romish Church," says the same writer, " this is the 
one which has proved most injurious ; and if it be 
regarded in connection with the celibacy of the clergy, 
will explain why the cause of morals is always worse 
in Popish than in Protestant countries. The uses of 
conscience were at an end, when given for safe keeping 
to a Romish confessor ; actions were no longer meas- 
ured by the standard of right and wrong, but by a 
casuistry and a pernicious process of reasoning, by 



472 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

v\^hich it was intended to make man satisfied with 
himself. The result of this has been, and is at the 
present moment, even in these United States, that law 
is the only restraint upon a Papist ; he is taught to 
believe that by confessing his crimes to a Romish 
priest, he can obtain pardon. The blackest murderer, 
if he can escape the hangman or the penitentiary, is 
no farther concerned about the deed ; he believes his 
[)riest can forgive him, and all is at rest." 

This was a doctrine which Pope Innocent tried with 
all his might to enforce upon his people. The reader 
has now a fair specimen of a Romish Pope. " Voila 
7Yiounncle.^^ Look, Americans, and examine this fault- 
less picture of a Pope, and perfect model of a Romish 
priest ! Do you desire that an engraving should be 
made of it, and scattered through the land ? Do you 
desire to establish in your midst, colleges and schools 
for the purpose of bringing up your children in the 
faith and practices of Pope Innocent ? I tell you, if 
you do, the rising generation will be without religion 
or morals, and this glorious republic will die in the 
arms of despotism. I am aware that Americans will 
say — at least it will be said by a portion of them, who 
are not Christians indeed — that such a man as Inno- 
cent III. could not live in this country ; that he would 
be plunged into the next river, if he dared to interfere 
in the administration of oi^r laws. Facts do not war- 
rant Americans in jumping at this conclusion. Who, 
at least in Boston, forgets the destruction of the Ursu- 
line Convent? Did not Bishop Fenwick and his nuns 
fjublicly boast that they had " twenty thousand stout 
Papists ready at their beck, to reek their vengeance on 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 473 

the peaceable citizens of Boston?" Might not the 
Pope's agent — had he not crouched before a supe- 
rior force — have said to this twenty thousand mad- 
men, as Innocent III. said to his French followers, 
when they landed in England, " Sword, sword, leap 
from thy scabbard! sword, whet thyself for ven- 
geance!" and would not those men have obeyed 
him, had he not had the prudence to see their com- 
parative weakness, and advise them to keep the 
peace, under pain of being cursed by him ? Had 
there been force enough upon the spot to have put 
to the torture and to death every Protestant in Boston, 
it would have been done. And why, or for what ? 
Merely because the people thought proper to pull 
down a legalized house of prostitution, surreptitiously 
erected in their midst! Will it be said that I am also 
incorrect in my charges against the Ursuline nuns of 
Charlestown, Massachusetts? 

Bishop Fenwick represents them as models of 
purity and chastity^ and recently 'assures his Holiness 
the Pope, that he is making converts from the first 
families of Boston to the religion and pure faith of 
these nuns. I have something to say of two, at least, 
of those nuns^ who were in that convent when an 
indignant people leveled it to the ground. I knew 
two of those nuns personally^ and I knew them both 
far advanced in the family way, in their own country, 
when I left it. They were both seduced, and their 
seducer was their confessor^ — a Roman Catholic priest 
of the order of St. Augustine. That priest is now livings 
and those ladies whom he seduced, and who fled 
from their native country to the Ursuline Convent in 



474 AURIUCLAR CONFESSION AND 

Charlestown, 'kre now living, I believe, in Quebec 
Do those sympathizing ladies in Boston, some of 
whom have been educated by these two sisters — not 
of charity^ but of crime — wilful, constant, persevering 
crimes — wish to hear their names ? I am tempted to 
orive them, and I would do so, if I thought it might 
have the effect of opening the eyes of Protestant 
mothers, and prove a warning to them not to send 
their daughters, in future, to be educated in a Popish 
nunnery, or to confession to a Popish priest. But to 
return : Protestants have no mercy to expect from 
Papists. A true Catholic is not allowed to hold any 
communion with a Protestant, nor will his bishop oi 
priest permit him to be buried in the same ground 
with a Protestant. He is not allowed to go to the 
funeral of a Protestant :- and. if he does go, he com- 
mits a sin which the priest is not allowed to forgive 
him, without a special license from the Church. In 
the technical language of the Romish Church, the 
case of a man who attends a Protestant funeral is a 
reserved case ; that is, a case or a crime w^hich no 
ordinary priest can forgive, without a particular license 
to do so. Going into a Protestant church, and hearing 
a Protestant minister preach, is another reserved case. 
Saluting or speaking to a Protestant, or heretic, is also 
among the reserved cases. Speaking, for instance, to 
Eugene Sue, the author of the Wandering Jew, whom 
— '"'' hoi'rihile dictu^^ — the Roman Catholic Bishop of 
Lyons, in France, has excommunicated, is another 
reserved case, which no one except the aforesaid 
Bishop of Lyons, or some person delegated by him, 
can pardon or forgive. Speaking to any member of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 47S 

the Christian League — that arch heretic. Rev. Mr. 
Kirk, for instance — is a reserved case^ which no priest 
in Boston, except Bishop Fenwick, or some one dele- 
gated by him, can pardon or forgive ; for be it known 
to all the inhabitants of the world, that he, and his 
brother colleagues of the Christian League^ have been 
excommunicated by the present Pope. It is a reserved 
case to speak to me. Speaking to me is a crime of 
peculiar atrocity, and can be forgiven by no power, 
save the Pope of the Infallible Church. I have ac- 
cused the Pope of sin, of folly, and depravity. This 
is altogether inadmissible, and deserves eternal damna- 
tion ; the idea that a Pope of Rome can commit sin, 
or can do wrong, is inconsistent and incompatible with 
true religion, as Papists understand that term. 

The Pope of Rome, according to Papists, cannot 
sin; he is not only infallible^ as the most eminent 
Popish writers assert, but impeccable ; see Belarmine, 
a standard wiiter in the Popish Church. But I will 
no longer detain the reader on this particular subject 
of reserved cases, and Popish follies of ancient times. 
Bishop Fenwick, and the rest of the right reverend 
brethren of the Popish Church, will say that my state- 
ments are all "o/c? lies;^^ that the holy Roman Catholic 
Church never did, nor does it now, prevent her sub- 
jects from speaking to heretics, or those who differ 
from her in their belief. I will venture the assertion, 
that if any Protestant theologian call upon any Roman 
Catholic bishop in the United States, he will deny this 
fact, or give an equivocal answer, though there is not 
to be found a solitary work on Popery in any library 
in the United States, or elsewhere, which does not 



476 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

sustain me in the assertions I have made. But we 
will not go to ancient times for authority. I will 
state to the reader a case to the point, which occun-ed 
about the year 1822, and to the truth of which thou- 
sands of our fellow citizens in Philadelphia can bear 
testimony. When I first opposed Popery in that city, 
by recommending that the Bible should be circulated 
among the people, and that the children of the poor 
Catholic Irish should be sent to school to be educated 
in its pure and unsullied doctrines, the Roman Cath- 
olic Bishop of that city, a poor, little, irritable Irish- 
man, by the name of Conwell, prohibited his people, 
or his subjects^ as he called them, from speaking to me, 
the heretic Hogan, or his followers, Hoganites ; and 
the most amusing part of it was, that by way of giving 
his subjects good example, whenever we passed each 
other, even on opposite sides of the street, his lordship 
took off his hat and crossed himself, repeating the 
AVE MARIA! This he never failed to do, wherever 
we passed, much to the amusement of the Protest- 
ant inhabitants of that city, and to the great edification 
of the Papists. It may appear exceedingly strange or 
amusing to Bostonians, should I tell them that a sim- 
ilar belief in the criminality of speaking to heretics is 
taught in Boston, the capital of New England ; but 
this is a fact, and if Papists term it a new " lie," it 
cannot be helped, for what I am about to state oc- 
curred only the other day. I chanced to meet, in a 
book store in Washington street, a convert to Popery, 
just fresh from the hand of Bishop Fenwick. I had 
never seen the gentleman but once before, and he was 
then, as well as during most of his previous life, one of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 477 

!hose men in whose faith I had not the least confidence. 
I did not know that he was present when I entered the 
store, and was in the act of inquiring for a vile thing, 
called Brownson's Quarterly Review, which he pub- 
lished in the month of July, 1840. During my inqui- 
ries for this Review, the author, Brownson, addressed 
me, as nearly as I can recollect, in the following 
words : " I know you, sir ; you once owned a whig 
press in Savannah ; you criticized my Review. I 
marked you — but I am not allowed by my Church 
to speak to a heretic." I looked around me in some 
astonishment. I did not expect to hear such language 
on the land of the Puritans ; but sure enough, there 
stood Brownson, a Roman Catholic, fresh from the 
anvil of Popery ! There he stood, totus teres adque 
rotundus, full-blooded and fully developed ; the very 
Brownson himself, who has been consistent in noth- 
ing but infidelity and unbelief, now a good Roman 
Catholic ; the very Brownson who has never been 
true to either his Maker or to his church, now a good 
Roman Catholic, whose church and whose conscience 
would not allow him to speak to a heretic! I never 
noticed the man much before, but now I fixed my eye 
upon him, and I shall not easily forget his countenance. 
On first intuition, I could scarcely imagine it was the 
Rev. Mr. Brownson who stood before me. My imag- 
ination presented to me a different character. I could 
not suppose that one who was once a clergyman 
v/ould entertain the sentiments which I had the mis- 
fortune of subsequently hearing him utter. I was, 
however, mistaken. It was the Rev. gentleman. He 
strongly reminded me of characters between whom 



478 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

and himself there existed a strange similitude; but 
comparisons might offend the delicate sensibilities of 
some of my readers. 

I looked at him a second time, and I could not restrain 
the involuntary exclamation — Popery, thou child of sin, 
treachery, and intrigue, bad as thou art, is it come to 
this — that thou must take by the hand as thine advocate 
and supporter this wretched being, who for thirty years 
has been sporting with the attributes of the great God, 
alternately extolling and ridiculing them, as best suited 
the ungovernable bent of his unstable mind, which 
thou mightest read in the demoniac-looking face of 
this man ? But this is one of the secrets by which 
Popery spreads itself all over the United States. The 
Popish Church will admit any men or women, be they 
saints or devils, into full communion with them, if they 
swear allegiance to the Pope of Rome. This is one 
of the grand causes of the success of Jesuitism in this 
country. How different is it in some of the Protestant 
Churches ! It requires some tact and church general- 
ship in any man who has not been brought up a 
Protestant, to obtain admission into them upon any 
terms. Far be it from me to insinuate that Protestants 
should follow the example of the Papists, in admitting 
such things as Brownson into communion with their 
Churches. Nor should I mention the fact of the ad- 
mission of Brow^nson at all, into the Romish Church, 
if I did not look upon this circumstance as a promi- 
nent instance of the corrupt evils of its infamous 
practices, and an irrefragible argument against its 
alleged good. But Brownson has been purified from 
all his sins by some Popish chemical process ; he has 
gone to confession^ is no longer a sinner, and therefore 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 479 

he is too pure, too immaculate, and too strong in the 
faith of the Popish Church, to render it otherwise than 
sinful in him to speak to a heretic ! It is said that 
the Pope has recently given his subjects in the United 
States a dispensation, by which they are allowed to 
transact business with heretics^ and speak to them in 
case of necessity. Wonderful condescension this ! 

Such statements as I here make, must appear in- 
credible to American Protestants. Many will suppose 
that I am dealing in fables — that sneh rigmarole and 
such silly pretences as I have charged the Papists 
with, have never been countenanced in any age or 
among any people, much less American freemen ; but 
let us see what are the facts in the case. I would 
not ask the reader to take my word for it. In 1555, 
Pope Paul IV, in his famous bull against heretics^ sup- 
ports me in every assertion I make ; charging Papists 
with deeming it unlawful and criminal, to hold any 
intercourse with Protestants. Will the reader be 
pleased to attend to what this infallible Pope says, 
and that, only between three and four hundred years 
ago ? I call upon our civil authorities to ponder and 
weigh well the import of his words, and never to 
forget, that there is no Catholic in this country or else- 
where, who will dare to say that the decretals and 
commands of Paul IV., are of less force or less bind- 
ing upon them than those of the present Pope. " All 
heretics, viz. Protestants, be they kings or subjects, are 
accursed." Mind that^ Mr. Polk, President of the 
United States ! attend to it, you Governors and Magis- 
trates! you are each and every one of you accursed^ 
and none of our citizens are allowed to speak to you 
21 



480 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



without a dispensation from the present Pope. Thai 
identical Pope, Innocent III., — of whom I have just 
been speaking, and who has, without any objection 
from either party, been selected, by Bishops Hughes, 
and Fenwick, and myself, out of about three hundred 
Popes, as a fair sample of a good Pope, — has declared 
it to be unlawful for any Protestant Executive, 
whether King or President, to require any allegiance 
from a Roman Catholic. Take heed, Mr. President 
Polk! it is said you are a Presbyterian ; ask no 
allegiance from a Roman Catholic ; he is not allowed 
by the present Pope, — who of course follows in the 
footsteps of his illustrious predecessors^ Paul IV. and 
Innocent III., — even to speak to you without a dispen- 
sation. It is utterly useless to multiply cases of this 
kind. No article of the Romish faith is better estab- 
lished, than that which teaches them to hold no com- 
munion with heretics^ and try by every means in their 
power to overthrow all Protestant governments. Will 
this statement too be called an old lie ? If it is a lie, 
it is assuredly a very old one, and a very new one 
too. Will the reader go back with me, to the history of 
ancient times? It. will afford me pleasure if he does. 
The source of truth is as open and accessible to him as 
to me, and if he thirsts for it sincerely and honestly, he 
can slake it to his heart's content at its very fountain. 

The general reader knows that at a very early 
period of Christianity, a considerable number of 
native Christians was found in the Peninsula of 
India; I believe they were first discovered by the 
Portuguese. They have been represented as harmless, 
guileless, and gentle in the extreme. They professed the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 481 

pure doctrines of the bible. Even the Portuguese who 
discovered them, admitted that their lives were blame- 
less, and that they were true Christians in every 
respect, except that they did not believe in the infalli- 
bility of the Pope and the supremacy of the Romish 
church. Here was an opportunity for the Romish 
church, of showing her charity, if she or her pioneers 
had any. These native Indians never did them any 
harm ; they never before heard of a Pope or a Romish 
church ; they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and in 
the all-sufficiency of his atonement for the sins of 
man, but never heard of a Pope ; such a word "was 
not found in their simple, native vocabulary ; this was 
a crime not to be forgiven by their ignorant Popish 
discoverers; and how were these simple people treated 
by them ? I refer the reader to that admirable work, 
written by Lacroze, for a full account of the manner 
in which they were treated by these jackals who 
discovered them. Suffice it to say that they were at 
once reduced to obedience to the Pope of Rome, to 
acknowledge the Pope's church as infallible, and com- 
pelled to worship the images of a set of vagabonds 
called saints and virgins, who if living now-a-days 
amongst us, should be considered fit subjects for our 
penitentiaries and work houses. The reader will also 
see an account of the condition and character of this 
people in Buchanan's Researches. 

I refer to the case of those primitive Christians as 
corroborative of my charges against Popery, and to 
show that her corrupt and persecuting spirit has 
always been the same, and that nothing better could 
be expected from the great changeling-^ Brownson, or 



482 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

aiiy other convert to her dogmas, than a compliance 
with all her injunctions. Unfortunate Brownson! 
while you tried to support yourself and family, by 
alternately lecturing and publishing your sceptical and 
unintelligible theories, the community in which you 
lived, and who knew your circumstances, felt a kind 
and deep sympathy for you. They knew — and every 
man knows — that theoretical scepticism, and some 
sentiments of honor, are not always incompatible. A 
man may be a sceptic and not entirely destitute of 
honor. A man may be a sceptic and yet an honest 
man. Your fellow citizens imagined that you mignt 
have been among that class of people ; but now they 
know you. They know that for twenty or thirty years, 
you have not only been a sceptic in theory, but a 
practical doubter, saying yes to one thing, and again 
yes to the contrary. You must not, of course, be sur- 
prised at seeing yourself sink in morals and principles, 
until you lose all claims to the sympathies of society. 
If any individual should think it an object worth his 
notice or time, to satirize or lampoon you, the best and 
bitterest w^ay would be, to bind up into one volume, 
all the twattle you have written upon religion, morals 
and metaphysics, and send it to you. I could with 
sincerity reproach myself for having thus deviated 
from the subject of these pages, to notice this unhappy 
individual, Brownson, for I believe there is not a well- 
informed gentleman in the United States, who does 
not know that there never was a period in the history 
of Popery, when the Pope and Papists were not 
the implacable enemies of Protestants. Even Papists 
themselves offer no defence against this charge, but that 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 483 

Stale and hackneyed falsehood, Popery is not now 
what it was in old times; this seems plausible to 
Americans, but let us see what are the facts in the 
case. Let us inquire whether Popery is at all different 
now, from what it was in the days of Paul IV. and 
Innocent III. Is its persecuting spirit the same ? Are 
its tenets more liberal, its doctrines more mild, and its 
Popes, from the last century up to the present moment, 
less ambitious and more tolerant? Papists say they 
are ; Bishop Hughes of New York, and Bishop Fen- 
wick of Boston, say they are ; and their Corporal Trim, 
Brownson of Boston, touches his hat and nods his 
head. I say they are not. We are now at issue. The 
question between us is one of veracity. The Bishops 
and Trim are liars, or I am one, in this matter. How 
are the public to know which ? There is but one mode 
of ascertaining thi.*?. Let us appeal to history, and to 
facts. One of the best and I believe the most recent 
authorities to which we both can appeal, is a work 
recently written by Wm. S. Gilli, D. D., and published 
in London. I call it one of the best authorities, because 
many of the truths which he gives us, confirm my 
assertion, and are matters of profane history, and con- 
nected, indirectly, with national treaties, with which 
we are all more or less acquainted. This connexion 
throws an additional light on, and gives more force to 
the statements of Dr. Gilli ; besides, it gives a strength 
and momentum to my charges against Popery, which 
no Popish casuistry can check. The work which I 
allude to, is entitled "The Waldensian Researches.^^ 
This excellent work commands great and deserved 
popularity among all parties, religious and political, in 



48! AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Europe. It is a matter of historical truth, that as early 
as 1690, and on the 20th of October of that year, a 
treaty was made between Holland and England, — then 
the two great Protestant powders of Europe, — securing 
to the Vaudois, or Waldenses, the free exercise of 
their religion and safe enjoyment of their property. 
This treaty was assented to by all the powers of 
Europe. The Vaudois were a small community of 
Christians, living in the valleys at the foot of the Alps, 
whose origin is involved in some obscurity. They 
give us, themselves, no record of their antiquity, prior 
to the ninth century, but are supposed by antiquarians 
to have been the descendants of a band of Apostolic 
Christians, who fled from Italy to escape the fury of 
barbarians, which had overrun that country during the 
decline of the Roman empire, and who sought for 
shelter in the secluded valleys of the Alps, in the 
western part of Piedmont ; though, as far as we 
know, they have in a measure escaped the mad and 
bloody fury of the northern barbarian, in their lonely 
valleys, they had not been able to escape that of a 
still more bloody barbarian, the Pope of Rome. All 
Europe, who had any knowledge of this people in 
their lonely valleys, felt great sympathy for them. 
They were comparatively few in number, their wants 
few and easily supplied by their own industry ; their 
valleys were to them a second paradise, but they were 
not long so, when the great serpent of Rome entered 
it, and brought upon them such an amount of misery, 
hardships and persecutions, as probably never were 
heard of before in the annals of history. I will refer 
to this hereafter. Let us first see w^hat becomes of the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 485 

treaty to which I have alluded. It was solemnly made 
and formally sanctioned ; they were promised full pro 
taction, by his royal holiness the Pope, only about one 
hundred and forty years ago. How did the Pope act ? 
How did he keep his faith with this poor harmless 
people? History tells the tale. He summoned the 
Inquisition, and threatened Victor Amadeus, a good 
Roman Catholic, with excommunication, if he did not 
violate his treaty in favor of the Vaudois, and renounce 
all treaties which he had ever made with the heretics ; 
and he called upon his subjects, that is, upon all Cath- 
olics, Bishops and Inquisitors, to proceed against here- 
tics, and look upon all compacts and treaties made 
with heretics as null and void. Passing over, for the 
present, the sufferings of the Waldenses in former 
times, let us see what their condition is now. This will 
satisfy the reader that the church still persecutes here- 
tics, and refuses to hold any communion with them. 
It proves also that Popish bishops, who assert that 
Popery is different now from what it was formerly, 
and that Hughes and Fenwick, of New York and 
Boston, together with their Corporal Trim, Brownson, 
have deliberately misstated facts. Hear to what Mr. 
Gilli says of the spirit of Popery as it existed the 
other day. 

" The son of a Waldensean soldier, who served 
under the conscription of Napoleon, being born in a 
garrison where there was no Protestant minister, was 
baptized by a Roman Catholic Priest. He was 
shortly afterwards brought home to the valleys, was 
educated as a Protestant, in the communion of his 
forefathers, attended Protestant worship and received 



480 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

the sacrament in a Waldensean church. He was 
married to .a Waldensean woman, b}^ a Waldensean 
pastor, but this marriage is now called a mixed 
marriage, under the allegation that he is an apostate 
Eoman Catholic, and a process with all its penalties 
hangs over the family." ( Grievances^ p. 13.) Now 
Messrs. Bishops Hughes and Fenwick, do you ap- 
prove of the manner in which your Popish church has 
treated this Waldensean soldier? Do you see any 
difference manifested here towards heretics, and that 
which the Popes have always shown towards them ? 
Would you not, if you could, persecute every heretic 
in the United States ? Do you not believe that every 
marriage between Catholics and Protestants in the 
United States and elsewhere, is invalid and not bind- 
ing in the sight of God ? Does not your Pope, your 
church, and do you not, yourselves, teach that the 
parties in such marriages are living in a state of 
adultery? Do you not teach that if a Catholic lady 
marries a Protestant, without a dispensation from your 
church, she is an adulteress and ought to be treated 
accordingly by your church, which, in the plenitude of 
her mildness, consigns her body to the holy inquisi- 
tion, to be broken on the rack, and her soul to hell to 
perish everlastingly. Do I state the truth, reverend 
gentlemen ? Will either of you contradict me? If you 
do, 1 will lay before you Antoine's Moral Theology, 
De 3fatri?7iomo, which some of your priests and my- 
self studied in the same class, in the college of May- 
nooth, Ireland. Is this persecuting heretics or not' 
Did Paul IV., or Innocent III., ever show an instance 
of greater intolerance than you do, under your present 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 487 

Pope, even in these United States ? But what would 
you do had you the power ? The past history of your 
predecessors can best answer this question. Look at 
yourselves, you impostors of the present day ; view 
yourselves in the mirror of truth, and if you are not 
too far gone in falsehood and hypocrisy, you must 
blush at the deceptions and impositions which you 
are trying to practise upon the citizens and govern- 
ment in this country. You will perhaps say that in 
1794, all the edicts in force against the Vaudois, 
or Waldenses, were repealed by the king of Sar- 
dinia. It is more than probable that the soft-headed 
and brainless minister now at that court from the 
United States, may inform you, if you have not the 
fact from any other source, that the Vaudois have 
full liberty of conscience in the full exercise of their 
religion and the education of their children. 

Our present minister, Wm. H. Stiles, Georgia, at 
that court, who is nothing better than a living libel 
upon diplomacy, was elected to Congress by the votes 
of Irish Papists. He had just tact enough — no fool 
is without more or less of it — to ingratiate himself 
with President Polk, and obtain the appointment of 
Charge to Sardinia. In him you have a pliant tool, 
who will teir you the king of Sardinia has issued 
orders to prevent the taking away children, with a 
view of obliging them to embrace the Catholic reli- 
gion, and requiring also, that those children which 
have been taken away, shall be restored. This proves 
two important facts which cannot be doubted, as ihe 
King of Sardinia cannot even be suspected of any 
want of allegiance or respect for his royal brother, the 
21* 



488 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Pope of Rome. It proves, in the first place, that the 
Romish chm'ch has authorized its members to go into 
the Alpine valleys, and steal from their Protestant 
brethren their beloved children, with a view of prose- 
lytizing them to the infamous doctrines of Popery. It 
shows, in the second place, that the cries of their be- 
reaved parents for their restoration, have been disre- 
garded by those Popish robbers, otherwise the royal 
order for their restoration need not have been issued. 

In spite of these edicts, children are now taken 
away, as Gilli informs us, under pretence of their 
being illegitimate. Two lamentable and heart-rend- 
ing cases occurred in the year 1828. Mind, take 
notice, Messrs. Bishops, of the date. This is not an 
old lie, as you have been pleased to call many of the 
statements in my books. If it be a lie at all, it is a new 
one. The case I refer to is this. A Popish priest 
demanded from a poor Protestant w^oman, her infant 
child, in order that it might be brought up in the faith 
of the infallible church. She refused, of course, to do 
so, but clung to it the more closely, pressing it to her 
bosom with a fondness such as a mother only can feel 
or describe, and fled to the mountains, preferring to 
perish with it there, rather than to have it brought up 
in the idolatries of Popery. And what was the conse- 
quence ? I blush to relate it, for the honor of human- 
ity. This Popish priest, in obedience to the commands 
of his holy church, did precisely what any Popish 
priest in the United States would do under similar 
circumstances. He ordered a small guard of carabi- 
neers to pursue her, and bring her, that she might 
be dealt with according to Popish laws. For many 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 4gy 

weeks she lived a miserable life, flying from place to 
place, until the sufferings of the mother and child 
excited the pity of the Popish monsters who issued 
the order for her apprehension. The order was with- 
drawn, but not revoked, and the woman's fears and 
anxieties continue, while she remains exposed to the 
same severity. Will you, Messrs. Bishops, after this, 
presume to say that the Popish church does not sanc- 
tion the persecution of heretics ? will you dare assert 
ihat she does not sanction their total extirpation ? 
You cannot do so, and I risk nothing in saying, that 
you, Messrs. Fenwick and Hughes, would be the first 
to strike the blow, should a favorable opportunity 
offer. 

In 1840, as Gilli tells us, a fraternity of eight 4nis- 
sionaries, of the order of St. Morris and St. Lazare, 
was instituted at LatoiTc, one of the largest towns of 
the Vaudois. The object of this institution is to go 
about making proselytes. To this, as the London 
Review very properly remarks, there can be no objec- 
tion. We admit missionaries into the United States. 
The Popish jackals are among our own valleys, as well 
as on the tops of our mountains. No American citi- 
zen can go many miles from his home, without finding 
himself in the vicinity of one of those Popish dens 
called monk-houses, or nunneries. This we cannot, 
nor are we disposed to prevent; our Constitution allows 
it ; we recognize the right of Papists to send mission- 
aries among us; but it might be questioned still, 
whether we ourselves are right, or whether the framers 
of our Constitution have not committed a great error, 
In the mode of wording that part of our Constitution. 



490 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

granting any right or privilege to any nation, or people, 
or government, or religion, which was not founded on 
strict reciprocity. Did it ever occur to Jefferson, 
"Washington, Madison, or the other eminent men who 
framed our Constitution, that in giving to a Eoman 
Catholic sovereign, king, or potentate, the right of 
sending missionaries into the United States, they forgot 
the securing to the United States a reciprocal right ? 
The Papist is allowed to invade our country ; but are 
we allowed to invade Papal States, and build churches 
there for divine worship, as the Papists are in the United 
States ? The Catholic priest can come here from 
Kome and build a church, teach a school, and preach 
whatever and whenever he pleases ; but if an Ameri- 
can ^tizen and Protestant freeman go to the city of 
Rome, or any strictly Catholic country, he is under a 
legal disability to build his church, or teach or preach. 
Is this fair ? Is there any thing reciprocal in this ? Is 
it not rather a disgrace, and a lasting lampoon upon 
American freedom, to tolerate this violation of the first 
principles of reciprocal rights ? Let our people take 
this matter into their own hands ; let them call upon 
their representatives, and demand from them an imme- 
diate redress for this national humiliation, which has 
been entailed upon us by some unaccountable want of 
foresight on the part of the framers of our Constitution. 
But, say the Popish bishops in this country, our church 
never persecutes, she never disturbs heretics, she loves 
Protestants as brethren, and is willing to pay the most 
implicit obedience to their laws and institutions. This 
is the language of that notorious demagogue and dis- 
turber of the peace, Bishop Hughes of New York ; 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 49I 

This is the language of Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, 
to which Brownson, his Corporal Trim, invariably 
says yes. These are the men whom I have accused 
of falsehood — ■ wilful and deliberate falsehood. Have 
I satisfied my readers that I have stated the truth, and, 
though not the whole truth, — nothing but the truth? 
Have I satisfied them that the Popish Church and 
Papists have ever been the sworn enemies of Protest- 
ants? They admit themselves, that great cruelties 
have, in ancient times, been inflicted by Koman 
Catholics upon Protestants ; but in order to deceive 
Americans, they very blandly assert that those times 
"have gone by, and that such cruelties do not now exist. 
Is the reader satisfied yet that this is not correct, and 
that the only object of these men is further deceit and 
deeper treachery? Let me again call the reader's 
attention to another passage from Gilli ; it will show 
more clearly, if possible, than it has hitherto been 
done, that the malignant haired of Popery towards 
Protestants burns now as brjghtly as it did at any 
period of Christian history. " They are," says Gilli, 
speaking of the Protestant Waldenses, " absolutely 
forbidden by Roman Catholics to exert their parental 
authority over their own children^ if thc^e children, 
(girls above ten, and boys above twelve years,) are 
tempted to forsake their faith. In 1836, a child was 
taken from a family at Lucerne, and in 1842, another 
from a family at St. Germain, upon the pretext of an 
inclination expressed by those children to turn Roman 
Catholics, there being no difficulty in tempting a poor, 
half-starved boy of twelve, or a girl of ten, to receive 
instruction offered with a crucifix in one hand, and a 



492 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

loaf or a fish in the other. Thus the parent's heart is 
to be doubly pierced ; first, by encouraging a pretended 
exercise of judgment on the part of his child, before 
the understanding is matured; and secondly, by a 
legalized abduction of the child so tampered with. 
On the 2d of May, 1839, the child of Jaques Dalmais 
de David, and Margarite his wife, having been torn 
from them on the pretence of being illegitimate, was 
sent to the foundling hospital at Pignerol, although the 
parents were both natives of Vaudois, born in the 
commune and parish of Villar Bobi, and lawfully 
married in that parish, by the pastor thereof. Upon 
the first abduction, the father took away the infant 
from the nurse to whose charge it had been committed 
previously to its being carried to the hospital; and for 
his refusal to attend the summons of the commandant 
of the province, he and his wife were thrown into 
prison, and there remained several days. The child, 
however, was restored to its parents, after an investiga- 
tion which lasted many months ; the legitimacy of its 
birth having been fully proved. 

"In the month of August, 1842, the Prefect of 
Pignerol ordered a Bible lecture and prayer meeting 
which was held in a school room at Latour, on Sunday 
afternoon, to be discontinued. 

" On the 18th of January, of the following year, a 
similar order had been issued by the Intendent of the 
province. The order appeared in the following words : 
* The Royal Secretary of State for the Interior, having 
been informed that every Sunday some Waldenses, 
Protestants, held congregations in a school house, and 
*hat many persons of every age and sex met together 



POriSH NUNNERIES. 493 

to sing psalms alou'd, the said Royal Secretary of 
State has communicated to me that the places being 
appointed wherein the Waldenses shall worship, no 
innovation, or increase of the number of the same, 
can be admitted, and they must be enjoined to dis- 
continue those meetings, or in case of contumacy, the 
government will adopt measures to prevent them.' 
Accordingly the Sunday services were discontinued. 
This is a cruel state of things ; and it may well be asked, 
whether Protestant communities were, or ought to be, 
consdered the friends of civil rights ? Ought they not to 
interfere in correcting such a state of things? And is it 
not the duty of this country in particular, to be the very 
first to do so? Shall it be said by any future historian, 
that republican America shall be outdone in philan- 
thropy and sympathy for the oppressed, by the despots 
of Europe ? Shall it be said that England, in almosjt 
every reign, has done more for the advancement of 
free principles and religious toleration, than republican 
America ? Even Cromwell, despot as he is represent- 
ed to have been, interfered in behalf of the persecuted 
Protestants of Vaudois. George I. of England also 
interfered in their behalf. Cromwell told the Pope, 
through his ambassador at Rome, that if he did not 
silence his canons in the valleys of Piedmont, against 
the Protestant inhabitants thereof, he would silence 
them himself by his own brass cannons at the gates of 
the Vatican. And shall it be said that the freemen of 
America shall witness the oppressions of their Protest- 
ant brethren without a word or a threat in their behalf? 
The following petition or memorial, in behalf of 
the Protestants, the Vaudois, was sent, in 1842, by 



494 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

a committee appointed in London, for their relief. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury has immortaUzed his 
name by being at the head of this committee. It 
reads in the following words : 

To the Earl of Aberdeen, Her Majesty's principal 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 

Winchester Houses St. James Square ^ 

,, ^ April 9th, 1842. 

My Lord, 

We the undersigned, members of the London 
Committee, instituted in 1825, for the relief of the 
Vaudois of Piedmont, earnestly entreat your Lordship 
to submit to Her Majesty the Queen our humble en- 
treaty that Her Majesty wall be graciously pleased to 
intercede in behalf of that ancient community, with 
their sovereign, the King of Sardinia. The sufferings 
of Vaudois have often excited the sympathy of this 
nation, and our sovereigns have, from time to time, 
been pleased to exercise their beneficent offices in the 
privileges and rights of the Vaudois Church, which 
have been threatened ; and this they have done out of 
compassion for the afflicted. 

Among other aggrievances, it has been represented 
to us that the Vaudois have now to complain that 
children are taken from their parents by the priests 
and local authorities, when one of the parents is said 
to be a Roman Catholic, under pretence of their being 
illegitimate ; that their religious services are inter- 
rupted; that their intercourse and traffic w^ith their 
fellow countrymen, beyond certain limits, are placed 
under grievous restrictions; that some of them are 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 495 

deprived of the means of their subsistence, being 
forbidden to purchase, to farm, or to cuhivate lands, 
except within boundaries too narrow for their popula- 
tion ; and that others, to their great disadvantage and 
detriment, have been ordered to sell property which 
they have legally acquired beyond the territories to 
which they are confined. 

If these alleged severities were inflicted on the 
Vaudois for acts of turbulence or dangerous fanati- 
cism, we should not presume to entreat Her Majesty's 
gracious interposition. But it does not appear that 
any thing can be laid to their charge, except the prO' 
fession of religion differing- from that of the Roman 
Catholic Church, and similar, in many particulars of 
faith and discipline, to the reformed churches in 
Europe, &c. 

This petition has been signed by the following gen- 
tlemen : W. Cantuar, W. R. Hamilton, 
C. ,T. London, Wm. Cotton, 
C. R. WiNTON, T. D. Acland, 
Geo. H. Rose, W. S. Gilly. 
R. H. Inglis, 

England, as a Christian nation and a Christian 
people, has done well on this occasion. She has 
given the world evidence that whatever may have 
been the crimes or errors of her former rulers, she still 
retains within the breasts of her people some sense of 
that great commandment, " Love thy neighbor as 
thyself." AYhat have we, American citizens, done 
for our Protestant brethren in the Alpine valleys? 
We see and know them to be oppressed and ground 
to the dust — for what? Because thev are Protest- 



496 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



ants. Is there any thing else laid to their charge? 
Nothing. Was there ever any thing else laid to 
their charge, in justification of the cruelties which, 
century after century, the Pope of Rome and the 
blood-hounds of his church have inflicted upon them ? 
I have diligently examined the history of this people. 
T was induced to do so at an early age, believing it 
almost impossible that humanity was capable of en- 
during such sufferings as history informs us were 
inflicted upon them by the Romish Church ; and I ara 
compelled to say, in truth and honesty, that I cannot 
discover any reason or any cause for their persecution 
by Roman Catholics, except that they did not believe 
in the supremacy of the Pope, and the abominations 
of the Romish Church. And why, under these cir- 
cumstances, are not Protestant Americans ^oing some- 
thing for these their brethren ? It is in the power of 
this country to do much in any just cause. Such an 
advocate as this government might prove itself to be 
against the spirit of Popery, even in the Piedmont 
valleys, would carry gladness to the hearts of many an 
oppressed brother among them. We have money, 
which we are throwing away in charity to those who 
have but few claims upon us ; we have genius, which 
we are scattering all over the country in rantinj^s 
and ravings and metaphysical discussions, unproduc- 
tive of any thing useful to man. Why not employ 
this in espousing the cause of liberty and of our op- 
pressed brethren the Vaudois, — a poor people, who 
have no standing armies, no treasury, — nothing but 
their Protestant religion and a good cause to support 
them. Why is not the genius of our people — why 
have not their fine minds and fine talents been em- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 497 

ployed in holding up before the broad light of heaven 
the villanies, iniquities, abominations and corruptions 
of the Romish Church ? Why are not such impos- 
tors and deceivers of the public as the Roman Catholic 
Bishops of New York and Boston, together with their 
man Trim — Brownson — singled out from among 
our people? "Why does not public opinion write in 
Italics on the countenance of each of these men, the 
words deceiver and traitor^ that our children may 
avoid them when they see them in the streets ? Why 
do we not teach even our little ones to pray that the 
Lord may rescue our brethren the Vaudois from the 
cruelties of Popery ? Why does not every Christian 
teach his child to exclaim, in the beautiful language 
of the immortal poet of England, who was himself a 
true friend of the Vaudois, 

"Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; — 
Even them who kept thy truth so pure, of old, 
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
Forget not." 

Why do Americans allow their children to go to 
the schools, kept professedly for the propagation of 
such doctrines as those taught and practised by the 
Romish church ? I myself tremble lest there may be 
something wrong in the construction of the social 
system in our republican government. Assuredly, 
nothing else could induce us to violate the first law of 
nature, which is self-preservation. Our natural affec- 
tions, and sympathy with each other, are the sweetest 
ingredients — and perhaps the only sweet ones which 



498 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Providence has thrown into the cup o^ life, undoubt- 
edly for the holy purpose of rendering it at all palate- 
able. Take them away and life would be bitter indeed. 

A state of society, such as the Popish church, 
through her agents in this country, desires to intro- 
duce amongst us, tends to no better purpose, than to 
divest man of humanity itself. It would harden his 
heart and swell him with the morbid humors of vanity, 
ambition, bigotry, and persecution. It would increase 
our natural misery, and leave us no anodyne, but that 
filthy and abominable one, auricular confession and 
Popish pardons. Does not this deserve the execra- 
tion of the virtuous and pious of all denominations? 
And are you prepared, fellow citizens, for such a state 
of things ? I am aware that there are some amongst 
us, ready to tear from their bosoms, for base and 
selfish purposes, every thing good, which the God 
of glory through the merits of his Son, has planted 
there. There is nothing so absurd that pride and 
selfishness will not adopt and maintain it. It is said 
that Alexander did really believe himself to be a god. 
The vilest and most profligate of the Caesars de- 
manded Divine honors. Some of the Popes of the 
Romish church, even when- rotting and dropping to 
pieces, from the effects of disease, brought upon them 
by licentiousness and dissipation, would have the 
world believe that they were infallible^ and even im- 
peccable ; so says Balarmine, an authority not to be 
disregarded by Papists. 

Bishop Hughes tells us that in this country, we 
cannot prosper as a people, unless we adopt the reli- 
gion of the Pope, and encourage the Pope's subjects 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 499 

to overthrow this government, and not to be ruled by 
its laws or its people. Americans shant rule us, is a 
Popish motto now borne aloft by Papists through the 
streets of New York, and other cities in the Union. 
Such language as the above resembles rather the rav- 
ings of some poor lunatic, than that of a sober, honest 
republican, and appears to be more like that of a 
maniac, sitting in some desolate cell, with a crown of 
straw, swaying a sceptre of the same material, and 
fancying himself an Emperor, than any thing else ; 
but to me there is nothing inconsistent and strange in 
such language or such conduct ; I know the pride of 
a Popish Bishop. I have been too long among them, 
not to understand well their vanity and arrogant pre- 
tensions ; and though their conduct may not be such 
as to fit them for a lunatic asylum, still it never fails to 
unfit them for all the uses and purposes of civil life, 
and renders them dangerous citizens. There is nothing 
extraordinary in this ; it seems to be the natural con- 
sequence even of the physical organization of man. 
Inordinate ambition and false pride, are said by anato- 
mists to have a powerful effect in turning the brains of 
man ; but it is truly strange that, shocking as madness 
is in itself, and terrible as are its consequences, it 
sometimes affects people in such a manner as to turn 
our pity into laughter. We have an instance of this, 
— and a very prominent one, — in the case of the un- 
fortunate chang-eling-j Brownson, who, but the other 
day, was admitted by Bishop Fenwick into full com- 
munion with the Popish church. But nothing else 
could be expected by those who understand Popery, 
and see the broad difference between its system 



500 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

of morality, and that of pure Christianity. Modern 
Popery is made up from the philosophy of the ancient 
Pagans, and some German writers. It has many 
atti-actions in the eyes of superficial Christians; it 
has many aspects, and some of them of an attractive 
character. Unsophisticated people, such as many 
American theologians are, see, in the morality of 
Popery, apparently, much philanthropy and practical 
Christianity, and these so judiciously blended together 
by Popish cunning and Jesuitical craft, that its true 
character — nay even the deeds themselves — are en- 
tirely forgotten, in their admiration of the brilliant, 
though false light, in which they appear. 

For instance, to take that miserable man, Brownson, 
by the hand, and raise him from a state of utter des- 
titution, to which his own follies and imprudence 
reduced him, had in it much apparent philanthropy 
and practical Christianity ; the Popish Fenwick found 
him in great want, every religious society shunned 
him, as if the brand of Cain were upon him. There 
was not even to be found a political party that would 
have any thing to do with him ; he betrayed and left 
them all in rapid succession, and they in turn left him 
alone and unaided. All the powers of his mind 
(it is said that he once possessed some) were broken 
and crushed; there was no peace, no resting place 
for him. Both theologians and politicians raised their 
hands and pointed at him the finger of scorn — the 
former, as a rebel against the King of Glory — the 
latter, as a traitor to the puny king of their respective 
parties. 

Such was the condition in which the Jesuit Bishop, 



POPISH NUNiNERIES. . 501 

Fenwick, found him here in Boston ; and what, to al] 
appearance, could be more philanthropic, what more 
practically Christian — what more benevolent deed 
could the Pope's agent do, for effect^ — than take this 
man by the hand and supply him with the necessaries 
of life. And what, under these circumstances, could 
be expected from the changelings Brownson, than that 
he would devote all his mind to the justification of any 
falsehood or any errors, which his benefactors might 
desire to propagate. I find no fault with Bishop Fen- 
\vick for relieving the temporal wants of Brownson ; 
on the contrary, I freely admit, that the act is, in itself, 
and abstractedly considered, an act of benevolence 
and charity. We are bound to recognize in every 
human creature and every human face, the features 
of a brother and a neighbor. I would not, willingly, 
even question the motives of the Bishop; they are 
known only to his God. It would not be fair nor ju- 
dicious in a physician, to take a body apparently sound 
and in health, and dissect it, for the purpose of ascer- 
taining whether there were any hidden disease in it. 
He should take it for granted — as a general rule — 
that when all appearances were good and healthy, 
there existed no physical defect ; and I think and be- 
lieve it the duty of Christians to take it for granted, 
that, generally speaking, the motives of a brother are 
good, when his actions bear upon their face no indi- 
cation of being otherwise. But when any man or 
any church, holds up to the view of a whole people or 
nation, one who has been for years and years an ad- 
vocate of moral evil, as an object not only of pity and 
pardon, but of admiration — as Bishop Fenwick does 



502 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

the infidel, Brownson — every true Christian must trem- 
ble, and every true lover of civil rights must shudder, 
lest each sound that he hears should prove to be the 
death-knell of our religion and the civil rights of man. 
Unfortunate Brownson ! why prostitute thyself to the 
base purposes of Popery ? Thou mightest have been 
in want ; Protestants might have neglected thee ; but 
what of that ? What of the sufferings of this transitory 
and fleeting world? Let me tell you, and let the 
sound of my words ring forever in your ears, that, 

"Life can but little more supply 
Than just to look about us and to die." 

The above beautiful sentiment of the poet, has, I 
fear, but seldom occurred to you; assuredly it has 
made no lasting impression on your mind. It is 
probable that the following stanza, part of a famous 
monkish ditty, has in it beauties and substantial senti- 
ments, far more congenial to your tastes and thoughts : 

" Hang up son-ow, banish care ; 
The Pope is bound to find me." 

But a truce with poor Brownson, for a moment ; his 
days will soon be over. Like the great Mr. Shandy, 
he has been so long "dancing his white bear forward, 
that he must soon commence dancing him back 
again." He has already professed all the religious 
creeds in this country, and it is fairly to be presumed 
that lie will profess all of them back again ; and thus 
afford himself fresh and full room, for displaying, in 
connection with them, any additional political or 
religious vagaries which may spring up in his moon- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 503 

Stricken imagination. He may address himself to his 
patron, parson Fenwick, as Mr. Shandy did Parson 
Yorrick. " Yorrick, said Mr. Shandy, you see that by 
this means — that is by going backwards and forwards 
— every thesis and hypothesis have an offspring of 
propositions — and each proposition has its conse- 
quences and conclusions ; every one of which leads 
the mind back again, into fresh tracks of inquiries and 
doubtings. The force of this engine — observed Mr. 
Shandy, in great triumph — is incredible, in opening 
heads. Brother Shandy, said my Uncle Toby, it is 
enough to burst them into splinters.'' 

Had Brownson, in the Jesuit parson, Fenwick, a 
guide, simple, sinless, and guileless, as Parson Yorrick 
or my uncle Toby, there might be some hopes that he 
could yet be brought to see and feel the full force of 
truth. But Brownson will stick to the Jesuit as long 
as he gives him bread, and the Jesuit appreciates his 
value too highly not to supply him plentifully. The 
Jesuit knows well, that the little smattering of theolo- 
gy, which Brownson possesses, can be made useful to 
him. It is of the German School. The Germans are 
wild in their theories upon morals and theology, and 
yet they carry with them the appearance of much 
honest and persevering research, and never fail — un- 
less in very unskilful hands— 'to make a strong and 
terrible impression wherever they are preached or in- 
culcated. Brownson, though, in truth and reality, no 
scholar, knows enough of this theology, and of Popish 
Quietism^ such as was taught by raving monks and 
nuns in the sixteenth century, to see that by working 
them up together, and declaiming this undigested and 
22 



404 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

acrid mass, before an audience unprepared to analyze 
it, that he can produce just such an effect upon the 
public mind as Popish priests desire. It helps to cre- 
ate infidelity, and, of course, adds to the number of 
Papists in our country. 

There is a great similitude between the modern 
German, and the Popish moral philosophy. A popular 
writer very truly and very beautifully says, " in each 
we find the same senseless, useless, and aimless en- 
couragement of the mixed produce of the natural 
mind — the same indiscriminate worship of the good 
and bad it may please to throw up — every lawless 
thought, every idle dream, every dangerous imagina- 
tion suffered to run their unhealthy course, to end in 
folly and in impurity — piety professed without religion, 
and virtue without principle — the dictates of their 
respective creeds, theh' theory ; and the dictates of their 
hearts, their practice ; and wild work between them." 

Brownson has some vague notion of this compound 
philosophy ; he has, beside, taken great pains to make 
himself acquainted with those sesquipidalia^ or 1x)ng- 
legged words — if I may use such a term — which 
most mixed audiences mistake for learning. The 
Jesuit, Hughes, soon measured Brownson ; he looked 
into his past life and soon found him treacherous to 
every party and to every principle. This is the man 
for me, says the Jesuit — the Holy Church must have 
him, though we should be obliged to feed and clothe 
him for life. The infidel soon closed with the Jesuit, 
— a bargain was instantly made ; but my observations 
upon human nature have been very unprofitable to 
me, if the Jesuit does not soon find that, he has made '^ 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 505 

bad trade^ as a Yankee would express it ; that Brown- 
son is not the man he took him for, nor the scholar he 
took him for ; that he is but an unprincipled infidel, 
and a kind of monomaniac rhapsodist on subjects 
which he does not understand himself; in a word, he 
will find out in time that he can make nothing of him. 
Can the Jesuit, Hughes, " make any thing else than 
what it is ? " can he " make the lily a rose, or the rose 
a lily ? " can he " make the oak a vine, or the vine an 
oak ? " When he can do those things, and not a sec- 
ond before, can he make a hardened infidel an humble 
Christian, or a treacherous politician a safe citizen. 

I find myself, once more, not only drifting from my 
destined port, but, it would seem, that I had turned 
from it altogether. I intended to devote these pages, 
almost exclusively, to giving an expose of the abomi- 
nations of auricular confessions and Popish nunneries, 
but having by some accident or another, come athwart 
the great changeling, Brownson, who now acts as trum- 
peter to Bishop Fenwick of Boston, and is recognized 
by him and the Popish Church of the United States, as 
an authorized expounder of their sentiments and doc- 
trines, I felt it my duty to notice him briefly. This 
man, Brownson, is now sent as a Popish missionary 
or lecturer throughout the United States ; and speaks 
upon all subjects connected with Popery, ex authoritate. 

I find in the January number of Brownson's Re- 
view, of the present year, the following effusion, 
which, for effrontery and shameless falsehood, equals 
any thing I have ever seen. " We dare aflSrm," says 
Brownson, in his Review, January, 1845, page 12, " that 
no period in the history of our race, of equal length, 



506 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

can be pointed out, so remarkable for its intellectual 
and literary activity, as the thousand years, dating from 
the beginning of the sixth century, and extending to 
the commencement of the sixteenth. Now," continues 
Brownson, "in order to judge fairly, what the church 
has done for the human race ; whether in reference to 
religion, morals, literature, or science, we must ascer- 
tain what it actually effected. She (that is the church) 
at the beginning of the sixth century, sets to work to 
establish schools, the great monasterial schools, cathe- 
dral or episcopal schools. In the beginning of the 
sixth century, arose the cathedral schools, in Spain. 
All the great, renowned universities, were founded 
prior to the Reformation. Nearly all the monasteries 
were graced and enriched by valuable libraries. In 
each monastery was a scriptorium^ and a number 
of monks employed in copying and binding manu- 
scripts." There is much plausibility in the language 
of Brownson, now the jackal of Popery in the United 
States. I am willing to admit that a vast number of 
colleges and renowned universities^ were established 
before the Reformation, in Rome, Italy and even Eng- 
land. I would also admit that there were scriptoriums^ 
and that monks were employed in copying manu- 
scripts and binding books ; but has the illustrious 
chang'eling', Brow^nson, told us for what purposes these 
great universities were established, prior to the Refor- 
mation ? Far be it from me to deny their existence, 
that would indeed show that I was but a poor histo* 
rian, and that I knew but very little of the corrup- 
tions of the Romish Church. Sixtus IV., one of the 
infallible Popes of Rome, established whole colleges 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 507 

at once, and much as I have said against Popery and 
its corruptions, I have not, as yet, exhibited so flagrant 
an instance of Popish turpitude, baseness and avarice, 
as Pope Sixtus IV. leaves on record, by the single 
act of building these universities. He established 
offices and titles in each college, which were put up 
for sale by him, and were sold for sums, varying from 
one hundred, to one thousand and twenty thousand 
ducats. It was this illustrious and infallible Pope, 
Sixtus IV., — and I pray you will bear it in mind, 
thou great changeling, — that established a college of a 
hundred janizaries, and nominated these janizaries for 
the trifling' sum of one hundred thousand ducats. 
And how, think you, reader, did he pay them their 
salaries ? Was it out of the bonus of a hundred thou- 
sand ducats, which he received for chartering or sanc- 
tioning the college ? Far from it. He paid them some 
trifling compensation, derived from the proceeds of the 
sales of bulls. These janizaries were subsequenfly 
suppressed. Innocent III., — and you will recollect, 
Mr. Brownson, that he was Pope of Rome between the 
sixth and sixteenth centuries, — founded a university 
for a bonus of sixty thousand scudi ; (a scudi, I believe, 
is a fraction less than a dollar.) The reader may form 
some idea of the magnitude and splendor of this 
university, when I inform him, that this college had 
twenty-six secretaries, and a proportionable number of 
other oflicers ; every one of whom paid in proportion 
to his means, for the office he held. 

Pope Alexander VI., who, as you know, was born 
between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, and whom 
the changeling-^ s friend^ Daniel O'Connell, would call 



508 



AUhlCULAR CONFESSION AND 



a broth of a hoy^ established a university, and to show 
nis zeal for the great cause of learning and advance- 
ment of morals, he nominated eighty writers of Pop- 
ish briefs, each of whom had to pay eight hundred 
and fifty scudi for his appointment. This very Pope, 
Alexander VI., was one of the greatest debauchees of 
his age, and died by poison administered by the hand 
of his own son. Pope Julius II., who also lived be- 
tween the sixth and sixteenth centuries, added to these 
offices one hundred writers or copyists of archives, 
each of whom had also to pay seven hundred and 
fifty scudi. I have taken Brownson at his word. He 
affirms that no period in the history of our race, of 
equal length, can be pointed out, so remarkable for 
intellectual activity^ as that which occurred between 
the sixth and sixteenth centuries. J have and do here- 
by affirm, that there has been no period, in the history 
of Christianity, so remarkable for intellectual depravity 
and Popish ignorance, as that very self-same period. 
I have appealed to history and proved my assertion by 
facts, not taken from prejudiced writers, but facts re- 
corded and gloried in by Popes themselves and Popish 
writers. 

It is said by Papists and authoritatively asserted by 
their mouth-piece in the United States, that the col- 
leges and universities built by Papists, in the interval 
between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, were pulled 
down by the Protestants, Goths and Vandals^ who 
have lived since that period. Admitting that they 
have been, what then, Mr. Brownson ? What man or 
what people, in their sober senses, would tolerate the 
colleges established by Pope Sixtus in 1482, where 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 509 

offices were put up at auction, and that under the 
sacred name of religion ; where nothing was taught 
but the grossest idolatry, and nothing practised but 
simony and immorality, almost as bad as that of ihe 
heathens. Would any man at the present day, with 
the fear of God before his eyes, or who duly appre- 
ciated the blessings of civil liberty, tolerate amongst 
ourselves, a university such as one of those over which 
Popes Paul and Sixtus presided, even in the pahii- 
iest days of Christianity? According to Brownson, 
himself, assuredly not. We should pull it down were 
it amongst us ; we should scatter to the winds these 
Popish briefs^ decretals and bulls, which thousands of 
monks were employed in copying and binding. We 
should vest in some factory, those thousands and hun- 
dreds of thousands of scudi, which were given to 
Popes for chartering universities of learning — do n't 
laugh, reader — yes, reader, they were called univer- 
sities of learning — and we would send the lazy, crazy 
monks, who were by thousands employed in them, to 
work on our fields or in our factories. 

It was between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, 
that Alexander III., presiding in his official capacity 
over a synod held at Tours, in 1167, pronounced the 
Protestant religion of the Vaudois " a damnable heresy 
of long standing^ Do you call this any evidence of 
the great mental activity which the Popish Church 
displayed, and for which she and her members were 
so remarkable, prior to the sixteenth century ? There 
was another synod at Lavoux, in the same year, where 
the Pope gives another instance of the remarkable in- 
tellectual and literary activity of the thousand years 



510 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

between the sixth and sixteenth centuries. The Pop- 
ish Senate at Lavoux sent a memorial to the reigning 
Pope, to exterminate the Vaudois, " an heretical pest^ 
generated in olden times^ of enormous growth and 
great aniiquityP I believe it was in 1536 — recollect, 
Mr. Brownson, it is within your period of that thousand 
years^ when, according to yourself, Popery flourished 
in the full blaze of her glory and love of literature — 
that the poor Protestants, the Vaudois, sent a number 
of petitions to Francis I., praying that he would tol- 
erate them, and allow them to worship God as they 
pleased. Francis I. consulted the Pope's legate, who 
was then at his court, and immediately returned for 
answer to these poor Protestants, " I am not burning 
heretics in France, to foster them among the Alps." 
Remarkable instance of the literary activity of the 
Popish Church ! We have another strong instance of 
that intellectual and literaj'y activity of which Brown- 
son speaks, in Philip 11. of Spain, who, to show his 
zeal for the holy Catholic faith, determined — with a 
view, I. presume, of leaving some evidence of his 
Popish literary activity of mind — to despatch an 
army, under the command of one D'Oppede, with 
instructions to put to the sword every Protestant man, 
woman and child whom he mis^ht find in the Vaudois 
valley; and faithfully did he discharge his duty. He 
has left us, as the changeling Brownson would term it, 
a remarkable instance of Popish intellectual activity. 
Not a man, woman, or child, was spared by this 
Popish army. Anquetil, a Roman Catholic himself, 
and in full communion with the Popish Church, gives 
us a vivid picture of the remarkable intellectual activity 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 511 

of this D'Oppede, and his Popish army. The reader 
will pardon me for quoting the passage in the writings 
of Anquetil, containing this picture ; it certainly shows 
a remarkable intellectual and literary activity of Popish 
minds, during Brownson's thousand years of their un- 
sullied fame as scholars. "After the King of France 
gi'anted permission to his Roman Catholic General 
D'Oppede, and his soldiers, to take arms against the 
Vaudois,'' says Anquetil, " twenty-two towns and vil- 
lages were burned or pillaged, with an inhumanity 
of which the history of the most barbarous nations 
scarcely affords an example. The wretched inhabit- 
ants, surprised in the night, and hunted from rock to 
rock by the light of the flames which were consuming 
their habitations, frequently escaped one snare only to 
fall into another. 

The pitiful cries of the aged, the women and the chil- 
dren, instead of softening the hearts of the soldiers, — 
maddened with rage, like their leaders, — -only served 
to guide them in the pursuit of the fugitives, and to 
indicate the points against which to direct their fury. 
Voluntary surrender did not exempt the men from 
slaughter, nor the women from brutal outrages at 
which nature revolts. 

It was forbidden under pain of death to afford them 
harbor or succor. In one town alone, more than 
seven hundred men were butchered in cold blood; 
and the women who had remained in their houses, 
were shut up in a barn containing a great quantity of 
straw, which was set on fire, and those who endeavored 
to escape from the windows, were driven back by 
swords and pikes. According to orders, these speci- 
22* 



512 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

mens of Popish intellectual literary activity demolished 
all the houses, cut down the wood, uprooted the fruit- 
trees, and left nothing behind them but an uninhabited 
waste. The war-cry of the Papists, as this Roman 
Catholic writer, whose authority no Papist will ques- 
tion, asserts, was, " Kill ! kill ! " Dr. Gilli relates an 
instance of great heroism in one of those poor Protest- 
ants, who was among the persecuted. One Aymond 
De La Voye went through the villages, exhorting his 
brethren to stand firm in the faith of their forefathers. 
He was soon discovered by the members of the Inqui- 
sition. The first question put to him was, " Who are 
your associates ? " " My associates," he answered, 
*' are those who know and do the will of my Heavenly 
Father, whether they be nobles, merchants, peasants, or 
in any other condition." Let it not be forgotten, that 
this occurred before the sixteenth century, and before the 
Goths and Vandals of the Reformation, as Brownson 
calls them, had any existence. One of the Councillors 
of the Holy Inquisition asked this intrepid man and 
pious Christian Protestant, " Who is the head of the 
Church ? " He answered, " Jesus Christ." " Is not 
the Pope the head of the church?" inquired the 
inquisitor. " No," was the answer. " Is not the Pope 
the successor of St. Peter ? " " Yes," answered La 
Voye, "if he is like St. Peter, but not else." But 
such was the remarkable intellectual activity of the 
infallible Church, that no other questions were deemed 
necessary, and he was immediately consigned to a tor- 
menting death. But the persecutions of these Protest- 
ant Christians did not stop here. So remarkable was 
the intellectual and literary activity of Papists, between 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 513 

The sixth and sixteenth centuries, — that golden age of 
Popery, — in dispensing its blessing all over the 
world, that while enormities like those I have related 
were being perpeti'ated on the western side of the 
Alps, a fresh storm was brewing over their brethren of 
Piedmont. 

Will the reader think me tedious, if I give him a 
more explicit account, taken from Moreland's history 
of those people, than I myself can give ? I take it 
from Gilli's appendix. 

" There is a certain valley in the county of Piedmont, 
within five or six miles of Mount Vesulo, w^hich, from 
the town of Lucerna, is called the valley of Lucerna; 
and in it there is a little valley, which, from Angrogna, 
a small river running through it, is called the valley 
Angrogna. Next adjoining to this are two other 
valleys ; that is to say, the valley of Perosa, so called 
from the town of that name, and the valley of S. 
Marti no. .. In these there lie divers little towns and 
villages, whose inhabitants, assisted by the ministers 
of God's word, do make open profession of the gospel. 

" Moreover, I suppose that there are near eight 
thousand faithful souls inhabiting in this place. But 
among the men, who are bred up to endure labor, 
seeing they have from their childhood been inured to 
husbandry, you will find very few who know how to 
engage in combat. From hence it comes to pass that 
very few of them are ready upon any urgent occasion 
to defend themselves against public injuries. Yea, 
and the valleys themselves lie so remote from each 
other, that they cannot help one another till it be too 
late. And although these towns and villagrs have 



514 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

their counts or lords, yet the Duke of Savoy is lord 
over them all. 

" This duke, before he came from Nice into Pied- 
mont, diligently took order with those counts and 
lords of places, that they should admonish the inhab- 
itants to submit to him and the Pope ; that is, that, 
casting off their ministers, they should admit Popish 
preachers and the abominable mass. Whereupon our 
people sent petitions unto the prince, beseeching him 
that he would take it in good part if they were resolved 
rather to die than to lose the true religion of Jesus 
Christ .... but they shall be ready to amend their 
errors, if any there were, in case it should be manifested 
to them out of the word of God, to which alone they 
are to submit in this business ; and as to what con- 
cerneth them in matters of behavior and tributes, and 
other things due both to him and their other lords, that 
he would send and make diligent inquiry whether 
they have at any time committed any offence, that so 
due punishment may be inflicted on them, because he 
should assuredly know they are willing to approve 
themselves with due reverence most obedient to him 
in all things. 

" These petitions came to the hand of the prince, 
but availed nothing with him, who was become a 
sworn enemy with Antichrist against Christ. There- 
upon he sent forth edicts, declaring that those who 
should be present at the sermons of the ministers of 
the valleys, if but once, should be fined at one hundred 
crowns, and if a second time, then they should be 
condemned to ihe galleys forever. Orders also were 
given to a certain judge to ride circuit up and down to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 515 

put the penalties in execution, and to bind Christians 
and imprison them. The lords also and magistrates 
of places had the same power given them, and at 
length the godly were by this most impotent prince 
utterly given up to be plundered by all sorts of villains, 
and afflicted with most grievous calamities. 

" He sent also a certain collateral judge of his own, 
first to Carignan, there to act inhuman butchery upon 
the faithful ones of Christ ; whereupon he caused one 
Marcellinus, and Joan his wife, he being a Frenchman, 
but she a woman of Carignan, to be burnt alive with 
fii^, four days after they had been apprehended. But 
in this woman God was pleased to manifest an ad- 
mirable example of constancy ; for, as she was led to 
ex^ution, she exhorted her husband, saying, ' Well 
done, my brother, be of good courage ; this day doubt- 
less we shall enter together into the joys of heaven.' 
Some few days after this, there was apprehended also 
one John Carthignan, an honest, plain man, and truly 
religious, who, after three days of imprisonment, en- 
dured the torments of fire with very great constancy. 
Who is able to reckon up the several incursions, 
slaughters, plunders and innumerable miseries, where- 
with this most savage generation of men did daily 
afflict all pious men, because, being exhorted by their 
ministers to patience, they took no course to defend 
themselves against injuries ! Not long after also they 
apprehended one John, a Frenchman, and a minister, 
at a town called St. Germano, and, carrying him to a 
certain abbey near Pinerolo, there burnt him alive, 
who left a noble .example of Christian constancy. 
The like was done also to the minister of the town of 



516 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Maine, who was put to death at Susa by a slow fire, 
while he in the mean time stood as it were immova* 
ble, and not being touched with any sense of so 
incredible a cruelty, having his eyes fixed upon heaven, 
breathed out his happy soul. 

"Therefore, when things were come to this pass, 
and these miseries were increased every day more and 
more, and seeing that the patience and extreme misery 
of our people could not in any measure allay the fury 
and rage of these most merciless brutes, they at length 
resolved by force, as well as they could, to free them- 
selves and their wives and children from that barbarous 
usage. And although some of our ministers declared 
it was not well done, yet no admonitions could keep 
the people from resolving to defend themselves • by 
arms. Hereupon it came to pass that, several encoun- 
ters falling out, there fell within a few days about sixty 
of the plunderers. When news hereof was brought 
to the tyrant, he commanded his men to forbear, and 
sent two of his noblemen that so they might bring 
matters to an accommodation with our people ; but 
when it was perceived that all their drift was that our 
ministers might be cast out and the Pope received, the 
people would by no means yield to it. Wherefore, 
when the prince came into Piedmont, and resided at 
Versello, about the kalends of November, 1560, with 
intent to destroy all in the valleys by fire and sword, 
he sent an army of about four thousand foot and two 
hundred horse, under the command of the duke 
[count] de la Trinite." 

The writer then relates the submissions made by 
certain deputies whom the Vaudois sent to the duke. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 517 

" These false brethren, in design to serve their own 
private ends, persuaded the people, though almost all 
the ministers cried out against it, that too easily giving 
credit to the most false promises of their enemies, lay- 
ing down their arms, and sending deputies to the 
prince to promise obedience, they might, for sixteen 
thousand crowns, redeem both themselves and their 
religion. As soon as all these things were yielded to 
and promised by the too credulous people, through a 
vain hope of obtaining peace and religion, and when 
our deputies arrived at Versello, they were thence 
carried by the Lord de la Trinite to a certain cloister, 
there to abide for two months' space, (to the end there 
might be time for collecting the moneys,) and at 
length, casting themselves down at the feet of the 
prince and of the Pope's legate, (who were both there, 
attended by a great number of the nobility, and men 
of inferior rank,) they were constrained to supplicate 
the prince first, then the Pope's legate, that they would 
take pity on the people from whom they were sent, 
and to promise them, by an oath, that they would be 
ready to do all things that should be commanded by 
ihem. 

" The prince therefore growing confident upon this 
most solemn promise, immediately sent persons to 
command our people to receive and embrace that 
horrid idol of the mass ; whereupon, considering the 
inconstancy of their deputies, and the deceit or rather 
extreme perfidiousness of the tyrants being discovered, 
they plainly refused to yield that those things should 
be ratified which their deputies had unadvisedly trans- 
acted, through their own levity, not with the consent of 



518 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

people Then the tyrant, as soon as he came 

to understand this, was much more injflamed than ever 
before with anger, or rather outrageous fury, against 
our people ; and, collecting a rabble of an army, he 
gave command to the Lord de la Trinite to waste and 
destroy all by fire and sword, without any regard of 
sex or age. Hereupon houses were every where set 
on fire, nor is there any kind of mischief which was 
not acted by those most wretched villains ; by which 
means they forced our people, with their wives and 
children, to have recourse to the more craggy places 
of the mountains ; a thing very lamentable to be seen. 
For, at the very first assault, they were in a manner 
astonished, because, being spoiled both of their arms 
and goods, living in extreme want of all things, they 
did not see by what means they might be able to 
undergo so great and troublesome a war. 

" But at length, taking heart and trusting in the 
mercy and help of God, of the goodness of their cause, 
and being confident, because of the impiety and 
treachery of their adversaries, they resolved once again 
to defend themselves. To this end they appointed 
their guards and garrisons, fortified several places, 
blocked up passages, and were wholly resolute upon 
this point, to die rather than they would in any meas- 
ure obey a perfidious and wicked prince in so abomin- 
able a matter. But what need many words ? Things 
were come to such a pass, that in several fights above 
nine hundred of the enemy were slain, whereas, on 
our side, hardly fifteen were wanting." 

Such was the spirit of Popery during Brownson's 
thousand years of remarkable intellectual and literary 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 519 

activity! Do you, Americans, wish that the next 
thousand years of your existence as a nation should 
be distinguished by a similar intellectual preeminence 
in meiital activity and Christian literature ? But, con- 
tinues Brownson, in his Review of January, 1845, 
all these things were altered. What things does 
Brownson mean ? The universities ? or the remarka- 
hie activity of Popish minds between the sixth and 
sixteenth centuries? Who denies the former ? No 
one who is acquainted with history, or who knows 
that the world, a large portion of which was then 
under Popish dominion, needed to be purified from 
the idolatrous and disastrous doctrines' of Popery. 
The insolence of Brownson is assuredly unequalled. 
Either that, or his ignorance of history, is unpardonable. 
"At the period of the English Revolution," says this 
consummate hypocrite, Brownson, ''Hhe mass of the 
English people ivere buried in the grossest ignorance. 
Even long after, vjhen the Wesleys first started, they 
talked of the ignorance even of the people of London^ 
as they would of the South Sea Islanders^ This, as 
we say up here in New Hampshire, beats all. Was it 
not about this very period that the world gave birth to 
the illustrious Milton ? Was it not at this period that 
Dryden was born ? Was it not at this period that 
the brightest lights of literature that ever ihumined the 
world were shining in all their glory ? I might here 
give as many names of illustrious men and illustrious 
minds as ever adorned humanity ; men whose lives 
were an honor, not only to science, but to religion, to 
Christianity, and true piety. Did not Erasmus live 
before the English Reformation ? Was he grossly ig- 



5*^0 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

norant 7 Did not Luther live before the Reformation ? 
Neither of those were Papists, but they knew Papist 
doctrines so well as to break loose from them and 
appeal to the Christian world to rise as one man and 
pull down and raze to the ground Popish universities 
and colleges, as calculated only to cover the world 
with darkness, by substituting the legends of monks 
for true science, and the decretals of Popes for the 
Word of God. 

" From the eleventh century," says Brownson, 
"down to the sixteenth, literature and science received 
no check." Review of 1845, Jan. No. p. 17. Hear, 
reader, to this modern Esau, According to him, litera- 
ture received no check from the years 1100 to 1600. 
This assertion is made without any qualification or ex- 
ception. Does this Brownson believe that his readers 
are all a parcel of ignoramuses ? It cannot be so ; he 
must be aware that he states an untruth, and no man 
who has ever read history can think otherwise. It 
would be difficult, I apprehend, to meet a school boy 
in the United States — I may venture the assertion, 
that it would be impossible to find a child in America, 
over the age of ten or twelve years, — who does not 
know that the illustrious Galileo was born during that 
very period, and who could not tell, that his glorious 
discovery of the motion of the earth, not only met 
with opposition from the Church of Rome, but, that 
the ruling Pope countenaced his incarceration in the 
dungeons of the inquisition. Did not the Romish 
Church claim and enjoy the exclusive honor of strik- 
ing the first blow at a man and a mind such as the 
world never saw before? Did not Pope Urban VIIL, 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 521 

in 1623, declare and pronounce the motion of the earth 
to be perverse in the highest degree ? It was about this 
time, as a living writer observes, that the whole Catho- 
lic Church looked upon all the earth as a condemned 
world. This absurdity was rejected by Galileo. He 
established an equality between heaven and earth. 
He showed that the latter is subject to the same laws 
and floats in the same splendor as the former ; he put 
serenity and life in the place of mystical theory. For 
this he was opposed by Popish priests, the sworn ene- 
mies of science and literature. See, as the same writer 
observes, this venerable man, Galileo, — this good man, 
seventy years old, on his knees, barefooted and stripped 
to his shirt, before the officers of the holy inquisi- 
tion ; and for what ? He tells you himself, in a letter 
to one of his friends. " They — the inquisitors — look 
upon my book as more abominable and pernicious to 
the Church than the writings of Luther." Look at 
him ! you Brownson, thou contemptible cat's-paw of 
Popery, and say — if your heart has not been seared 
against the truth with something hotter than the hottest 
iron — whether literature and science did not receive a 
check, in the persecutions which your infallible church 
inflicted upon this great man ? " The four hundred 
years which preceded the Reformation," says Brown- 
son, "were ages of prodigious activity. In them we 
meet with the great name of Abelard, under whom 
Heloisa studied philosophy." Mr. Brownson forgot, I 
presume, to inform us that he also taught Heloisa 
moral philosophy. In this latter science she was emi- 
nently skilful, and left the world some evidence, at 
least, of her not being an inapt scholar in the doctrines 



522 AURICULA.R CONFESSION AND 

of genuine Popery. The great changeling, Brownson, 
could not give more illustrative examples of the beau- 
ties of Popery and of the advantages to be derived 
from a course of education at their schools, than that 
of Abelard and Heloisa; but he need not have gone 
so far from home for examples of this kind. There 
are hundreds of them to be found in the United 
States. We have schools, such as that which Abelard 
kept, and to which, Brownson tells us, " great flocks 
fled for education." One of these schools, my readers 
may recollect, recently flourished on Mount Benedict, 
Charlestown, Mass. Abelard, as every reader must 
recollect, lived in the twelfth century — at the very pe- 
riod, when, according to the great changeling — the 
Popish Church displayed her remarkable activity of 
mind in science and literature. Abelard was a learned 
doctor in the Church of Rome. He was, of course, a 
confessor ; he boarded in the house of a Popish canon 
in Paris, whose name was Fulbert. This canon had 
a niece called Heloisa, whom he was anxious to send 
to a fashionable school and bring up in the doctrines 
of the infallible Church of Rome. Accordingly he 
sent Heloisa to attend the lectures of the pious and 
God-like Abelard, just as many of our American 
mothers, with the advice and consent of their lords and 
masters, send their children in this country to be edu- 
cated, to Popish seminaries, kept by pious priests and 
saint-like nuns. Heloisa had not gone long to con- 
fession, when Abelard, her confessor, seduced her and 
prevailed upon the poor unthinking girl to become his 
mistress. In order to conceal this atrocious conduct 
and finding his dupe likely to become a mother, he 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 523 

sent her to a sister of his who lived at a considerable 
distance, where she was delivered of a son. It is said, 
that to appease Fulbert, the uncle of this victim of 
seduction and priestcraft, Abelard consented to marry 
his victim privately; but no sooner was he married 
and the anger of the uncle partially appeased, than he 
sent her to a monastery or nunnery and compelled her 
to take a religious habit ; thus adding treachery to 
crime and requiting a pure and simple-minded girl's 
love, by additional ingratitude and villany. But the 
poor girl had many friends besides the uncle, who, 
seeing the cruel manner in which Abelard treated her, 
determined upon revenge, and they had it. They sur- 
rounded his chamber at night, and took from his bed 
this man whom Brown son would hold up to Ameri- 
cans as a model teacher of morality, and had him 
emasculated. All this was done in the twelfth century. 
This was one of the great men whom the church pro- 
duced in Brownson's golden age of Popery. 

But what else could be expected of this Brownson ? 
"What else could be expected from any man who 
would hold and profess such sentiments as the follow- 
ing, which we find in his Review of 1840. " For our 
part," says the great changelings Brownson, " we yield 
to none, in our reverence for science and religion ; but 
we confess that we look not for the regeneration of 
the race from priests and pedagogues^ Very respect- 
ful language, especially from one who has been a 
priest and pedagogue himself! "They, — the priests," 
continues Brownson — "have had a fair trial. They, 
^the priests — cannot construct the temple of God. 
They — the priests — cannot conceive its plan. They 



524 AURIUCLAR CONFESSION AND 

— the priests — -know not how to build it. They — 
the priests — daub with untempered mortar, and the 
walls they erect tumble down if so much as a fox at- 
tempt to go up thereon. We have no faith in priests 
and pedagogues," says Brownson ; " they merely cry 
peace, when there is no peace and there can be none." 
Again the same traitor to God and religion, thus 
spews forth his Popish hatred to pure Christianity. 
" One might as well undertake to dip the ocean dry 
with a clam shelly as to undertake to cure the evils of 
the social state by converting" men to Christianity.^^ 
" For our part," continues Brownson, in another page 
of his Review, " we are disposed to seek the cause of 
the inequality of the conditions of which we speak, in 
religion^ and to charge it to the priesthood. Rarely do 
we find, in any age or country, a man feeling himself 
commissioned to labor for a social reform, who does 
not feel that he must begin it by making war upon the 
priesthood. Indeed it is felt at once, that no reform 
can be effected without resisting" the priests and eman- 
cipating the people from their power. Historical re- 
search, we apprehend, will be found to justify this in- 
stinct^ and to authorize eternal hostility to the priest- 
hood. Again, when once the class — that is, the class 
of priests — has become somewhat numerous, it labors 
to secure to itself distinction, and increases them. 
Hence the establishment of priesthoods or sacerdotal 
corporations, such as the Egyptian, the Braminical, the 
Ethiopian, the Jewish, the Scandinavian, the Druidi 
cal, the Mexican and Peruvian." Fie! fie! Mr. Brown- 
son, the Mexicans" belong to the Infallible Church, and 
like yourself, are strict members thereof " These sa- 
cerdotal corporations," continues Brownson, " are va- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 525 

riously organized, but everywhere organized for the 
purpose of monopolizing power and profit. The real 
idea at the bottom of these institutions, is only to en- 
slave the mass of the people to the priests, who, by 
pretending, honestly or not, to possess the secret of 
rendering the gods propitious, are able to reduce the 
people to the most wretched subjection, and keep them 
there, at least for atime." At page 384, of Brownson's 
Keview, of July, 1840, we find the following sweeping 
anathema against the Christian priesthood — not in the 
United States alone, but all over the world — and I 
woiild defy the most learned historian or impatient 
imldel upon earth, to produce any thing more blasphe- 
mous or more calculated to disturb the peace of man 
or the good order of society. " But, having traced the 
inequality we complain of, to its origin, we proceed to 
ask again, what is the remedy? The remedy is first to 
be sought in the destruction of the priest. The bad 
must be removed before the good can be introduced 
— conviction and repentance precede regeneration ; 
Christianity is the sublimest protest against the priest- 
hood ever uttered, either by God or man. In the per- 
son of Jesus, both God and man protest against the 
priesthood. What was the mission of Jesus but 
a solemn summons to judgment, and of the human 
race to freedom. He — Jesus — instituted himself no 
priesthood, no form of religious worship. He recog- 
nized no priest but a holy life, and commanded the 
construction of no temple but that of a pure heart." 
Take care, Brownson ! do n't let the Pope hear you. 
" He — Jesus — preached no form of religion." Take 
heed again I Did he not preach the religion of the 



526 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Romish Church, think you? Have a care! you will 
commit yourself, unless I occasionally caution you. 
*' He — Jesus — enjoined no creed." What, sir! not 
even that of the Pope of Rome? "He — Jesus — set 
apart no day for religious worship." Not a single one 
of those numerous holydays which the Infallible Church 
sanctions? " The priest is universally a tyrant, univer- 
sally the enslaver of his brethren, and therefore it is 
that Christianity condemns them. Christianity couid 
not prevent the establishment of a hierarchy, but it 
prepared for its ultimate destruction by insisting on the 
celibacy of the clergy." Really, friend Brownson, I 
am beginning to tremble for your safety in the Popish 
Church. " Again," says Brownson, in his Review of 
the same year, page 336, "we insist upon it" — re- 
member, reader, that Brownson is the mouth-piece to 
Popery in the United States, — " that the complete and 
final destruction of the priestly order in every practi- 
cal sense of the word priest, is the first step to be taken 
towards elevating' the laboring classes.^'' Pray, Mr. 
Brownson, what shall we do with the ten thousand 
Romish priests which are to be found at the present 
time in the city of Mexico alone ? Has the infallible 
Church concluded to ship them to our western States ? 
" Priests," says Brownson, " are necessary enemies to 
freedom ; all reason demonstrates this, and all history 
proves it." Look out, sir! you 're committing yourself 
again. Where are all those colleges you speak of as 
having been established bet\veen the sixth and six- 
teenth centuries, and in which you say was displayed 
a remarkable activity in science and literature ? Noth- 
ing better than asylums or schools, for the education of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



527 



men in such sciences as were calculated to overthrow 
the freedom of man. I told you so a while ago, and 
proved it too. All reason demonstrates this and all 
history proves it." 

Again, Brownson says, in the same page of his Re- 
view, " There must be no class of men set apart and 
authorized, either by law or fashion, to speak to us in 
the name of God, or to be the interpreters of the word 
of God." Is it so, indeed, Mr. Brownson ? I thought 
the Pope was authorized to do so, and that he and his 
church were especially empowered, to the exclusion of 
all, without distinction^ to interpret the word of God. 
The word of God, you say again, " never drops from 
the priest's lips." What ! do you mean to say that 
the word of God never drops from the Pope's lips ? 
Rest assured, my worthy friend, that if you repeat that 
again to Bishop Fenwick, he will put you on short 
allowance. " The priests were always a let and hin- 
drance to the spread of truth." Assuredly you cannot 
mean the Romish priests. You tell us, in your Re- 
view of this year, that the four hundred years which 
preceded the Reformation were ages of prodigious 
activity, and that during that time Abelard, St. Bernard, 
Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas, were remark- 
able men. All these were priests; yet you say that 
priests have always been the enemies of freedom, and 
a let and hindrance to the spread of truth. You 
thought, the other day, that these were good men and 
learned men, especially Abelard. What do you think 
of them, now that you have become a Roman Cath- 
olic? You believe all of them to be saints, and 
you know many of them have been canonized. We 
23 



528 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

have not your opinion of them since July, 1840. Let 
us hear what you thought of them then. We quote 
from page 387 of your Quarterly of that year. You 
ask the following question yourself, and you also an- 
swer it. Here are your words, viz : " What are the 
priests of Christendom, as they now are ? Miserable 
panders to the prejudices of the age; loud in con- 
demning sins nobody is guilty of, but miserable cow- 
ards when it is necessary to speak out for God. They 
are dumb dogs ; as a body, they never preach a truth 
till there is no one w^iom it will indict ; the imbecility 
Df an organized priesthood, and its power to 'demoral- 
ize the people, is beginning to be seen ; we have had 
enough of Christianity.''^ Have you, indeed, Mr. Brown- 
son? Well, ive have not; therein you and I differ. 
" Christianity," says Brownson, in the next line, " is 
powerless for good, but by no means powerless for 
evil ; it now unmans us, and hinders the growth of 
God's kingdom." It is high time, brother Fenmck, 
that I should wish you joy. You have an acquisition 
to your church, in the great changeling Brownson, and 
you show a depth of wisdom rarely to be found now- 
a-days, except among Jesuits, in sending your convert 
Brownson all over this country, to preach the pure and 
unsullied doctrines of your Infallible Church ; your 
apostle Brownson is assuredly a fit man for your pur- 
poses. History does not inform us that there is a sol- 
itary instance since the establishment of your church, 
of any government having escaped its machinations; 
and worse than purblind indeed must that ma?i be, who 
cannot see at a glance that the primary object w^hicb 
Popish bishops have in conimissioning this heartless, 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 529 

unprincipled infidel Brownson to go abroad lecturing 
among the happy people of this country, is to disturb 
the present order of society, and finally to overthrow 
this government, and erect upon its ruins the Papal 
throne. 

This Brownson is unquestionably an object of great 
pity, or well-merited contempt. I could turn from the 
bare mention of his name with nausea and disgust. 
It is but a few months since that he represented the 
whole system of Christianity as a gross imposition 
upon mankind, and our holy religion one of the black- 
est impositions that ever was practised upon our race. 
But now he has become a Roman Catholic. Now 
that he is in the pay of the Pope and his Jesuits, like 
another Esau he turns round, betraying everything 
that he ever professed, and pretends to discover that in 
the Church of Rome are to be found all the elements 
of pure Christianity ; that her priests are an exception 
to the great body of those priests against whom he 
pronounced his anathema a while ago. 

How many months is it, Mr. Brownson, since you 
became a Papist, and found out that you had been all 
your life a victim of delusion and Protestant priest- 
craft? Ten, twelve, or eighteen, is it? Well, suppose 
it is. Is that enough to give you a thorough knowl- 
edge of Popery, and to satisfy you that the Popish 
Church is composed of purer materials than any of 
those numerous churches in which you have believed 
successively and alternately for the last thirty years, 
and from each of which you have been successively 
expelled and excommunicated ? For, as you tell us 
yourself, in your Quarterly Review, so infamous and 



530 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

infidel were your principles, that even the Universalists 
could not tolerate you amongst them, and excommuni- 
cated you from their communion without one dissent- 
ing voice. So notoriously profligate and abandoned 
did they consider you, in mind, sentiment, thought, and 
language, that although their doctrine teaches them that 
Christ died for all, and that aU are to be saved through 
him, they excepted you, and you alone, as far as I am 
aware. Wide as the range of that belief is, all-com- 
prehensive as their charity is, and all-sufficient for 
the salvation of man as they believe the death of 
Christ to be, yet they could not believe that you were 
entitled to any benefit from it, and accordingly they 
formally excommunicated you. I can tell you, Mr. 
Brownson, that you have taken a false step, in your 
last move ; you have plunged thoughtlessly into the 
labyrinth of Popery, without knowing any thing of its 
intricacies, certainly not enough to say much for or 
against. As yet you have scarcely been admitted 
behind the curtain of this vast theatre in which you 
have engaged to play a character. And believe me 
when I assure you that if you have undertaken any 
other part than that of a buffoon, you will be hissed 
off the boards before long. You may, perhaps, soon 
be let into the green room of the vast Popish theatre 
where you have made a short engagement, and there 
some of the machinery of Popery may be opened to 
your view. But mind what I tell you ; when you see 
the hidden and concealed springs, the wheel within 
wheel, and the dirty workmen who set them in motion, 
you will behold sights and experience a stench which 
will strike you with an ofFensiveness as loathing and 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



531 



disgusting as if you had put your head into a com- 
mon sewer. Nothing will you see there but covetous- 
ness, the weakest vanity, and the most unrestrained 
indulgence of the vilest passions — one general system 
of artifice and intrigue for power and opportunities for 
debauching females. Never before could I realize the 
belief that man was so entirely and totally corrupt as 
he is, until I was admitted as a Popish priest into the 
theatre and great machine-shop of Popery. 

I have already given to the public some of those 
scenes which were witnessed by me in the Romish 
Church. They were new to some, and — as I expected 
— incredible to many Americans: but Americans — 
at least the well-informed amongst them — ought to 
know that I have related nothing new, or at least very 
little. My revelations have had, in point of fact and 
substantially, full publicity many years before my 
birth. The very facts I have stated had long been 
registered in the archives of literature, and might have 
been found on the shelves of the libraries of our own 
country. Some of them have been published by me 
with the sole view of scattering them amid our people 
in such form and at such a price as may be acceptable 
and accessible to all. Many of my statements might 
have seemed dark and cloudy, but truth and justice 
compel me to say that they were nothing in compari- 
son with those which are to come. They bear no 
more likeness to what I shall give hereafter, than the 
fleeting clouds which we see floating here and there, 
denoting the approach of a storm, bear to the storm 
itself. But alas! I fear that it is perfectly useless for 
me to attempt to awaken the American mind to a due 



532 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

sense of the dangers to be apprehended from the in- 
troduction of Popery among us. The general answer 
which I receive to all my warnings is, " We care not 
for what Papists can do ; we are a free people." It 
would be useless to reply to such childish argument 
as this, nor shall I attempt it ; but I feel really humili- 
ated at seeing such a people as the free citizens of the 
United States permitting themselves to be deluded, 
and the minds of their children poisoned by such doc- 
trines as are preached by the infidel Brownson, now 
employed by the Pope of Rome, as the apostle of. 
Popery in this country. It is also a source of deep 
regret to me to see Roman Catholics, especially the 
poor Irish, who owe this country more than any other 
people in the world, become its deadliest foes, and 
ready at the beck of their tyrant priests and bishops to 
trample under foot its glorious constitution^ which 
guarantees to them what they never had before, free- 
dom of speech, freedom of religion, and equal rights. 
^''Americans shant rule uSy^ say this poor, misguided 
people, the Irish. This drives me, nolens volens, to a 
farther exposure of some of the deceptions practised 
upon them and upon mankind in general, by faithless 
Romish priests, trusting, in the mercy of Providence, 
that if I can show them that they are deceived in one 
way by their priests, it may put them on their guard 
in future against further deception. 

I will now return to, or rather resume the considera- 
tion of, the doctrine of auricular confession,which. formed 
in part the subject of the first volume of this work. 

Before I enter on the disgusting subject of auricular 
confession, let me give the reader an idea of how it is 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



533 



made. And lest it may be questioned whether the 
form 1 herein give is correct, I shall give it first in Latin, 
and then in English, and appeal to any Roman Catholic 
priest or bishop in the world, whether so far I misstate 
or misrepresent facts. The following is the form : 

" Confiteor Deo omnipotenti beatSB Marise semper 
Virgini, beato Michaeii Archangelo, beato Johanni 
BaptistsB, Sanctis Apostolis Petro et Paulo, omnibus 
Sanctis et (tibi Pater) quia peccavi nimis cogitatione 
verbo et opere (pectus) mea culpa, mea culpa, mea 
maxima culpa. Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper 
Virginem, beatum Michaelum Archangelum, beatum 
Johannem Baptistam, sanctos Apostolos Petrum et 
Paulum, omnes sanctos et (Pater) orane pro me ad 
Dominum Deum nostrum." 

Translation of the Above. 
" I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever 
virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed 
John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, 
to all the saints, and to you, father, that I have sinned 
exceedingly, both in thought, in word, and deed, 
through my fault, through my fault, through my most 
grievous fault. Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary 
ever virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed 
John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, 
and all the saints, and you. father, to pray +o our Lord 
God for me." 

Such is the form of confession made by every 
Roman Catholic who goes into a confessional box, or 
who in any other place confesses to a priest. 



534 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

It is not my intention here, to show that no such 
form of confession as the above was ever used in the 
Christian Church for more than half a century after 
its estabhshment. The whole prayer of this confession 
is an innovation unknown to- the early Christians. It 
is an impure deposit in the sacred fountains of Chris- 
tianity, thrown into them and mixed up with them, 
by the unclean hands of the E-omish Popes and 
priests. Who or which of the primitive Christians, 
was ever known to pray to saints? Name him, Pa- 
pists, and I will give you credit for the discovery. 
You contradict yourselves and some of your most 
fundamental doctrines in praying to saints. Even the 
Council of Trent, which you consider infallible, goes 
no farther than to say, — " It is good and profitable to 
invoke the prayers of the saints." And how do you, 
Popish priests, justify yourselves in imposing on your 
deluded people, the idolatrous practice of praying to 
saints ? Answer the question yourselves. As I stated 
before, it is not my intention here, to enter into the 
merits or demerits of your form of confession. I shall 
confine myself, almost exclusively, to pointing out 
some of the fatal consequences to society, of introduc- 
ing such a practice as that of auricular confession, 
amongst any people. The reader will pardon iric, if 
I quote largely from IVIichellet, an admirable writer of 
the present day, and which cannot fail to be very satis- 
factory to the reader, from the fact, that he is a Roman 
Catholic and, of course, entitled to credit, as it is not 
to be presumed that any man will bear witness against 
himself or against the doctrines which he avowedly 
professes. The language of MichelJet is beautiful, as 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 535 

the Protestant Quarterly Review expresses it. He 
gives a graphic portraiture of a French wif(i. The 
reader will keep in mind that Michellet is a French- 
man, that he looks upon France as the vjorld, and 
that therefore his portraiture of a French wife, is a 
portraiture of any woman in the same position. The 
fact that Michellet's work is approved of by the Quar- 
terly Review^ of the American Protestant Associaticn^ 
is the highest encomium that can be passed upon it. 
The Review is edited by the Rev. Rufus Griswold, 
one of the most elegant, chaste and beautiful writers 
of the day, and whose commendation Michellet's work 
could not have, were it not eminently entitled to it. 
We have few such writers among our American con- 
troversialists as the Rev. Mr. Griswold, and I know 
not that I am hazarding truth, when I say, that we 
have not a more patriotic citizen, a more accomplished 
scholar, nor a more humble and devoted Christian. I 
shall here quote from Mr. Griswold's translation of 
Michellet, page 287 of the Quarterly Review of the 
American Protestant Association. 

" When I think of all that is contained in the words 
confession, direction^ — those little words, that great 
power, the most complete in the world, — when I es- 
say to analyze all that is in it, — I am alarmed. It 
appears to me that I am descending by an infinite 
spiral line, a deep and dark mine. I have had pity 
Heretofore for the priest; now, I dread him. We must 
not be alarmed, we must look it in the face. Let us 
frame with simplicity the language of the confessor." 
The reader must suppose here, a priest sitting in the 
confessional with a young lady kneeling by his side. 
23* 



536 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

whose lips almost press his. I know by experience, 
having often myself heard confessions, that this is the 
exact position of the parties. The lady is supposed, 
by Michelet — and he supposes so correctly — to be 
addressed by the priest in the following words. ' God 
hears thee ; hears thee through me ; by me God will 
reply to thee ; but thou tremblest, thou darest not tell 
to this terrible God thy weak and childish acts.' (The 
reader will not forget here, that the young lady peni- 
tent and the priest are both young.) ' Well, then, tell 
them to thy father, a father has a right to know the se- 
crets of his child, — an indulgent father who wishes to 
know them in order to absolve them. He is a sinner, 
like thyself; has he the right then to be severe? Come 
then, child, come and speak. That which thou hast 
never dared to whisper in thy mother's ear, tell me ; 
who will ever know it?' Then, among sighs from 
the swelling, throbbing breast, the fatal word mounts 
the lips; it escapes and is concealed. He who has 
heard it has acquired a great advantage, which he will 
preserve. God grant that he does not abuse it. He 
who has heard it — be careful — is not wood, the 
black oak of the old confessional; he is a man of 
flesh and blood. And this man now knows of this 
woman what the husband has never known in the 
long outpouring of the heart by night and day. That 
which a mother does not know — who believes that 
she knows her entu'ely, having held her so often naked 
on her knees — this man knows ; he will know. Do 
not fear that he forgets; if the avowal is in good 
hands so much the better, for it is forever. She also 
knows well that she has a master over her inmost 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 537 

thoughts. She will never pass before that man with- 
out lowering her eyes. The day on which this mys- 
tery was riiade common, he was very near her ; she 
felt his presence. Seated above her, he weighed her 
down by an invisible ascendancy. A magnetic force 
conquered her, for she did not wish to speak, and yet 
she spoke in spite of herself. She was fascinated, 
like the bird before the serpent. 

" Up to this point there was, perhaps, no art on the 
side of the priest. The force of things did all ; that of 
the religious institution and that of nature. As a 
priest he received her at his knees, at the listening box. 
Then, master of her secret, of her thought, — of the 
thought of a woman, — he was discovered himself to 
be a man; and without wishing it — without perhaps 
knowing it — he has placed on her, feeble and dis- 
armed, the heavy hand of a man. And the family 
now! the husband! who will dare to say that his 
situation is the same as before ? Every one who re- 
flects, knows very well, that thought is, in a person, that 
which most controls him. The master of the thoughts 
is he to whom the person belongs. The priest, holds 
the soul as soon as he has the dangerous gauge of the 
first secrets, and he will hold it faster and firmer. An 
entire division is made between the husband and wife, 
for now there are two ; the one has the soul, the other 
the body. Note, that in this division, one of the 
two has everything; the other, if he keeps anything, 
keeps it by grace. Thought, from its very nature, 
is dominant, absorbing. The master of the thought, 
in the natural progress of his sway, will go on con- 
stantly subjecting the part which remains to the other. 



^'"^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

It will be already much, if the husband, widowed of 
ihe soul, reserves the involuntary, inert, and dead pos- 
session. Humiliating thing, only to obtain your own 
but by permission and indulgence! to be seen, fol- 
lowed into the most intimate intimacy, by an invisible 
witness, who regulates you, and assigns to you your 
part — to meet in the street a man who knows better 
than yourself your most secret acts and weakness, — 
who humbly salutes you, turns aside and laughs." 

Who can read the above extract from Michelet 
on auricular confession, without fancying that it is 
nothing more than one of those effusions with which 
rich fancies like his frequently abound ? Men unac- 
quainted with anything but the ordinary business of 
life, cannot fancy, much less realize, truth in the above. 
Is there even a Roman Catholic to be found, who can 
realize or believe the fact, that while he supposes him- 
self the only possessor of his wife, — that she is his 
OWN — heart and soul — whole and undivided, yet is 
not so ? It is well perhaps for those who have the 
misfortune to be Roman Catholics themselves, or 
equally unfortunate in having Roman Catholic wives, 
that they have no idea of the influence which a Rom- 
an Catholic Confessor has over woman. Could any 
man live in happiness or enjoy the pure blessings of 
matrimony, if he knew that all the intimacies and se- 
crets, which existed between him and his wife, were 
far better known to the priest to whom the wife con- 
fesses, than to himself? It is well then perhaps, after 
all, that while such reptiles as Popish confessors are 
allowed a place in society, that the secrets of the con- 
fessional should be confined to themselves aloner. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 539 

Eat there is no untruth in the beautiful extract which 
I have taken from Michelet. The picture which he 
gives is neither over-drawn or over-colored. The wife 
who goes to confession, is, in reality, more the wife of 
the priest than the wife of her married husband. Her 
soul is the priest's, her thoughts are the priest's, and the 
priest controls all her actions. How beautifully has 
Michelet expressed the priest's control over her. " He 
has placed on her, feeble and disarmed, the heavy 
hand of a man." 

Many instances of the influence which the priest 
exercises over married women in the confessional 
have come to my own knowledge, while I was a Pop- 
ish confessor. The reader will bear with me while I 
relate one or two, from hundreds, which I have wit- 
nessed in the course of my life. 

In the year 1822, and in the city of Philadelphia, 
an elegant carriage, with servants in livery, drove up 
to my door, in Fourth street, between Walnut and 
Spruce, w^here I then lived; and a lady, dressed in 
the extreme of fashion, unceremoniously stepped up to 
my door and opened it without rapping, announcing 
herself a stranger who wished to see me on particular 
bvsiness. I knew, almost by intuition, what this par- 
ticular business was. I asked no questions and of 
course received no answers. The lady, however, said 
she wanted to confess and get absolution. My duty 
was plain, I was a Popish priest. But you have not 
the worst of it yet, reader ; so far, there was nothing 
evil in the matter save the infatuation of the lady in 
believing that a man could forgive her sins, and my 
worse than infatuation and weakness in believing that 



540 AURICULAR CONFKSSTON AND 

I had such power. The substance of this confession 
was the following, which fuiiy verifies the truth of Mi- 
chelet's statement. This lady had been in the habit 

)of going to confession to a Popish bishop^ who lived 
in a neighboring state, and frequently had criminal in- 
/ tercourse with him, going to his room whenever he 
f' directed her, under pretence of going to confession, 
though at the time she was a married woman. It will 
be asked why she came to me. The reason was this : 
her paramour being a bishop, was unwilling to have 
his crimes known to any priest in his own diocese, 
and directed her to come to another; and believing, 
as all Catholics do, that one priest can forgive sins as 
well as another, she selected me, as I was then com- 
paratively a stranger in the country. But the worst 
of the tale is not told yet. That part of it which cor- 
roborates the statement of Michelet remains still to be 
heard. 

Soon after the departure of this lady from my house, 
an English gentleman, with whom I had the pleasure 
of an acquaintance some years previously in London, 
and with whom I occasionally dined at a w^ell-known 
and fashionable boarding-house, not far from my own 
house, called on me and insisted that I should dine 
with him that day, holding out as a particular induce- 
ment the pleasure of introducing me to a lady and 
gentleman of the highest respectability, whom I should 
meet at dinner. I accordingly went to dine ; and the 
reader may imagine my surprise at finding the very 
identical lady who had been at confession with me a 
few hours before, and her husband — the respectable 
lady and gentleman to whom my friend promised an 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 541 

introduction. Respectable they truly were, as far as 
this world is capable of appreciating respectability ; and 
happy they were also, to all appearance ; but was not 
Michelet right in saying of a woman who goes to 
confession to a priest, ^^She will never pass befor-e that 
man without lowering- her eyesV^ Could that lady 
pass before me without lowering her eyes ? or could 
I, if hardened in the iniquitous practice of hearing 
confession much longer than I was then, pass that 
lady without lowering mine ? Did I not, as Michelet 
expresses it, " hold the soul " of that lady ? Did I not, 
were I iniquitously disposed, as her bishop was, hold 
her body also ? But when I looked at the husband of 
this lady — the elegant, accomplished, and gentlemanly 
husband — when I reflected on his huivMiating position 
— when I reflected that this elegant man was widowed^ 
not only of the soul, but partly of the body, of his 
beautiful, and as I can easily fancy, once innocent and 
virtuous wife, by a Popish bishop in the confessional, I 
could almost have cursed the hour that gave me birth 
in a land of Popery. My very soul froze within me, 
and I almost regretted that God in his mercy had not 
made me something else than a being who could have 
broken the cords of that pure and unmingled love 
between that elegant man who sat before me, and his 
once elegant and virtuous wife. Humiliating indeed, 
as Michelet said, must be the condition of that man 
whose wife goes to the confessional. When he walks 
the streets, he is met by the confessor of his wife, who, 
as Michelet properly says again, " salutes him humbly, 
turns aside, and laughs." O, how true this is! and 
would to God I could brand it upon the heart of every 



-^^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

man whose wife goes to confession. Is it true that 
God lives? is it true that the earth moves? is it true 
that man has a soul ? is it true that mind is not matter ? 
is it true that the sun rises and sets ? O ! it is still 
more true, if possible, that there are such things as 
Popish priests — saints in appearance, but demons in 
practice, — who laugh at the ruin and division they 
have made between man and wife. I do not know 
that I was ever so lost to every feeling of honor, when 
a Romish priest, as, when' I passed through the streets, 
to laugh at the husband whose wife was persuaded and 
fascinated away from him in the confessional ; but I 
have often walked the streets with Romish priests, in 
Europe especially, where Popery predominates, and 
there is no sort of amusement upon those occasions 
which they enjoy more than calling each other's atten- 
tion to some of their neighbors, as they pass along, 
and whispering into each other's ears, " Look at that 
gentleman ; how fond he seems of his wife. It was 
yesterday she was at the confessional with me ; poor 
fool!" This chit-chat terminates in a hearty laugh, all 
at the expense of the husband. The reader, I trust, 
will not think me tedious, if I give him another in- 
stance of the evils of Popish confession. It will be 
borne in mind that the fact which I am about to state 
is not taken from history, though history abounds with 
similar cases. It is one within my own knowledge. 

A short time previous to my coming to this country, 
and soon after my being installed as confessor in the 
Romish Church, I became intimately acquainted with 
a Popish family of great respectability. This family 
consisted of a widowed father and two daughters 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 543 

and never in my life have I met two more interesting 
young ladies than the daughters were. These ladies 
lived not far from the church where I officiated, and 
were frequently in the habit of going to mass to my 
church, and calling upon me when service was over, 
to take breakfast with them at their father's house. 
This custom of having young ladies call upon Roman 
Catholic clergymen to accompany them home to 
breakfast after mass is over, is very prevalent in 
Europe, among the most fashionable members of the 
Popish Church ; it is particulatly so in the city of 
, where I then officiated, and where the melan- 
choly circumstance which I am about to relate took 
place. The father of the two young ladies to wht)m I 
have alluded, was a gentleman of about the age of 
fifty-five, distinguished for his charity and benevolence. 
He was wealthy; and whenever any object which 
might advance the good of his fellow beings was sug- 
gested or proposed, he was among the first to advocate 
and support it. His influence and his money were 
never wanting, when either could promote the happi- 
ness of his fellow beings. It may easily be imagined 
that the daughters of such a gentleman were well 
educated and accomplished. It may also be supposed 
that their home, being a home of plenty and abun- 
dance, was one of peace, happiness, charity, and do- 
mestic love. It was truly so, when I had the honor 
of first knowing the family. But the serpent found 
its way into this little garden of happiness. 

In less than two months after my first visit to this 
family, at their peaceful and hospitable breakfast table, 
I observed the chair which had been usually occupied 



544 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

by the elder of the two sisters, ocenpied by the younger, 
and that of the latter vacant. I inquired the cause, 
and was informed by the father that he had just 
accompanied her to the coach which left that morning 
for Dublin, and that she went on a visit to the sister 
of the Rev. B. K. I, of course, made no further 
observations, but I suspected that something was 
wrong ; I also knew full well, that whatever the cause 
was, I should learn the particulars of it in my capacity 
as confessor. As time advanced, I made the usual 
inquiries for this young lady, who was then only about 
eighteen years old. The answers were such as any 
one acquainted with the world might expect, and 
entirely satisfactory to all who knew nothing of the 
iniquitous practices encouraged and fostered in the 
Romish confessional. 

I will here pass over an interval of about three 
months. A detail of the private occurrences in any 
particular family can have no general interest. At or 
about the expiration of that period, the younger sister 
complained of indisposition, and it was found neces- 
sary to send her also on a visit to Dublin. 

Now the whole truth broke upon me at once. I 
knew there was foul play somewhere, and soon 
enough did the fact in all its particulars come to my 
ear. It seems that both the daughters of whom I 
have spoken, went to a school attached to the Ursu- 

line Nunnery in the city of . The confessor, 

whose duty it was to hear the confessions of the pupils 
of this institution, w^as one Rev. Mr. B. K., a friar 
of the Franciscan order, who, as soon as his plans 
'vere properly laid, and circumstances rendered mat- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 545 

ters ripe for execution, seduced the elder lady; and 
finding that the fact could no longer be concealed, 
arranged matters with a friend in Dublin, so that the 
victim of his iniquity might be concealed and pri- 
vately supplied with all the usual attendants which 
her situation required. 

She was confined at the house of his friend, and 
her illicit offspring given to the managers of the 
Foundling Hospital in Dublin. 

But the most horrible part of the story remains yet 
to be told. No sooner was this elder lady provided 
for, than this incarnate demon, B. K., commenced the 
seduction of the younger lady. He succeeded, and 
ruined her, too. But there was no difficulty in pro- 
viding for them ; both became nuns. And here, you 
people of Massachusetts in particular, be it known to 
you, fathers and mothers, who have sent your daughters 
to be educated in the Ursuline Convent,, Charlestown, 
Massachusetts — I mean that which you felt it your 
duty to pull down, a few years ago, and which was 
situated upon Mount Benedict — that both these nuns 
held high stations in the convent which you pulled 
down, and that at the very period of its destruction. 
Fools, " dolts, double dolts," as the Jesuit Kodin calls 
all who contribute to the support of Popish nunneries, 
are you not ashamed of yourselves ? Are females who 
have been the prostitutes of priests in foreign countries, 
and who in nine cases out of ten continue to be so here, 
the only teachers competent to instruct your daugh- 
ters? Are there no American ladies — no Protestant 
ladies — capable of teaching your children? Must 
American parents go to Europe, and take from the 



546 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



purlieus of Popish convents, instructors for their chil- 
dren ? A poor compliment to American Protestant 
ladies, and a sad commentary it is upon the total igno- 
rance of American theologians respecting Popish 
morals in Europe. 

Here we have a case in point. This is not an old 
lie, as Popish priests and their supporters call all 
accusations against them ; it is a new one, if a lie at 
all ; it is one which I know myself, and can prove. I 
knew these nuns personally, before they came to this 
country. I was acquainted with them before they 
became nuns. I saw them in the convent at Mount 
Benedict. They were great favorites of Bishop Fen- 
wick. They were spoken of by some of the first 
families in the city of Boston, as models of piety; and 
to my own knowledge, two or three young ladies — 
and these the daughters of New England Protestants 
— were counselled by their mothers to take particular 
notice of the manners of those two nuns in particular, 
and imitate them, as nearly as possible. Nor can any 
one be surprised or scandalized, if I acknowledge my 
weakness in stating that I could not resist an involun- 
tary impulse to laugh at them " in my slecveP Does 
Bishop Fenwick desire the names of these two nuns? 
It is true, they might be Magdalens,h\ii ^^credat Judeas 
Apella, sed non ego^ 

When these things are permitted in the very centre 
of New England — when they are permitted to exist 
in the enlightened city of Boston — the capitol of a 
State whose people, as a body, I may venture to 
say, are not equalled in the world, for intelligence 
and general information — what can save the people of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 547 

the United States from corruption, and from gradually 
declining into its very depth ? When the impure 
waters of Popery are permitted to flow into our lakes 
and fresh streams, must not all be contaminated, in 
time ? Must not the atmosphere of our freedom be 
impregnated with immorality, disease, and final death ? 
What, under these circumstances, can save us ? God 
alone may do it. He alone c^n do it, and he will do 
it ; but we must ask him for his interposition ; we must 
humbly pray that he would save us, for he has prom- 
ised us nothing without asking for it. And so sure as 
we ask him in a proper spirit, we shall receive. He 
has himself made us this promise — the word of the 
Great I AM is pledged — He will redeem it. 

It is with great reluctance that I dwell any longer 
on these impure subjects, but a sense of duty compels 
me to do so. It is useless to do otherwise ; " the im- 
purities of Popery must be known;" they have been 
comparatively hidden in this country — they have been 
long buried in the cells^ pits, and caves, of the Romish 
Church — they must be dug up, even if the whole 
superstructure of the nation should be undermined 
thereby ; for what is a nation without morals ? Who, 
if he had a house partly built, and only then discovered 
that the foundation was not a secure one, — who, I say, 
under these circumstances, would not arrest the prog- 
ress of the workmen thereon, and order them to un- 
do what they had already done ? No prudent man 
would hesitate in such a case, even at the expense of 
levelling to the ground what he had already accom- 
plished. And why should a nation act differently 
from an individual, in many circumstances, at least ? 



548 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

An eminent philosopher of olden times exclaimed, 
and not without much indignation, " Quid leges sine 
uwribus?'''' and might we not say with equal propriety, 
Quid republica sine moribus ? If our Republic, or 
any part of it, is based upon a hollow or unsafe 
foundation, or if there be any part of that foundation 
defective, or likely to give way, to the imminent danger 
of the supersti'ucture, sli^uld not that defect be entire- 
ly removed? Undoubtedly; prudence and economy 
would require it ; and when worldly prudence and all 
temporal concerns require such a course, should not 
the great moral interests of the country require it at 
the hands of the people as a duty, to lay their founda- 
tion on nothing but what is sound, and to allow no^ 
substance to be introduced into any portion of the 
superstructure, which may be in any way defective, or 
in any way endanger its permanency ? 

Popery now seems to form an ingredient, if not a 
part of our national structure of morals, and until that 
rotten and defective part is removed, the superstructure 
can never be raised with safety to its proper and legiti- 
mate height. This is the only consideration which 
induces me to dwell longer, or even so long as I have 
done, upon the obscene subject of auricular confession. 
All I have said on the subject might have been com- 
prised within a more narrow space than I have allotted 
to it, and thus many disgusting sights might have been 
hidden from the eye of the reader. There are some, I 
am aware, who wish to hear the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth ; but even among those, I 
find many who, though they admit the truth of my 
statements, still contend that the cases I have stated 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 549 

are isolated, and endeavor to show that I draw general 
conclusions from particular premises. Even Popish 
priests admit — because they cannot do otherwise — 
that many of my statements cannot be questioned, but 
contend that though these may be true, it does not 
follow that Popish priests or nuns can, as a body, be 
accused of immorality. "^ particalari ad generale 
non valit conclusio^^'' say these profound logicians. 
But suppose I admit that thus far they are right, and 
that there are exceptions to the sweeping accusations 
which I have made against them as a' body; does this 
prove any thing for them ? Is the general rule or 
general principle to be denied because there are ex- 
ceptions to either? Surely not ; were there a thousand 
exceptions to a general rule ; were there a million of 
exceptions to one single and general principle, it 
would not falsify the rule itself, or invalidate the prin- 
ciple. Papists are doing much to justify their doc- 
trines. That unfortunate Brownson, to whom I have 
alluded heretofore, is recognized by them as their 
apostle and the expounder of their faith in the United 
States; but the crowd of words which he uses in his 
discourses and lectures, in justification of Popery and 
on the morality of its priests and nuns, is too thick and 
too dense for a single idea, much less a single fact, 
to be dragged from it, and it so happens that he does 
more harm than good. Nor can it be otherwise ; a 
net woven too thick is useless to the fishermen ; a 
tree with too many leaves and blossoms seldom has 
any fruit, and is unproductive to the husbandman ; so 
it is with the lectures and teachings of Papists and 
their apostle. They are made up of words meaning 



550 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

nothing, proving nothing, and in reality aiming at 
nothing but deception, which ultimately must fail, for 
we are told upon high authority, and every man's ex- 
perience adds force to the saying, ''truth must prevail." 

It is therefore my duty to state facts generally true, 
no matter how numerous the exceptions may be. I 
therefore hesitate not to reiterate the general charge, 
that Popish priests and nuns are corrupt and immoral 
almost beyond conception. 

I must ask the reader's indulgence once more. He 
will, I trust, not feel fatigued or impatient, while I 
relate to him another instance of immorality perpe- 
trated by a Popish priest, and sanctioned, at least, by 
three of the most respectable Popish bishops in the 
United States, and by the whole body of an order of 
nuns in the United States, called sisters of charity. 
The case which I am about to relate is one which I 
give not upon hearsay, nor even upon the positive 
testimony of others ; it is one w^ithin my own knowl- 
edge ; I know the parties to this whole transaction ; 
I have known them for years back ; they are now liv- 
ing, and if Bishop Hughes or Fen wick has the least 
curiosity upon the subject, I Yvill furnish him with 
the names of the principal actors in this tragedy. 

Would that I could write so that what I write 
should become visible to the eye, and musical to the 
ear ! O ! that I could only leave behind me a correct 
picture of what I have known of Popery! Could I 
scatter it before me, dash it around me, and fling it 
behind me — would Protestants aid me, so as to place it 
where no one could miss seeing it — Americans would 
shrink from it as they would from a frozen corpse. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 551 

But as I cannot do all that 1 should wish to do, and 
as Americans seem so wrapped up in their present 
wants as to care but little for their posterity, I must 
only do what I can under existing circumstances, and 
leave the event in the hands of Providence. 

Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia, and just 
about the time that Papists disapproved of my en- 
deavors to circulate the Bible among the poor, a 
Roman Catholic priest of the name of O. S. called 
on me, and showed me letters of recommendation 

which he had from Bishop T. of , Ireland, ana 

countersigned by the Roman Catholic Bishop of New. 
York, to Bishop England, of South Carolina, He 
stated to me that he was in want of money and cloth- 
ing, and asked me to lend him fifty dollars and pay 
his passage to Charleston, South Carolina, assuring 
me that he would immediately remit me any amount 
that I might expend on his account, by the first oppor- 
tunity. I took him with me to my tailor's and gave 
him an order for such clothes as he might want, 
amounting, cloak and all, to one hundred and ten 
dollars. From that I took him down to one of the 
packets which then ran betwixt Philadelphia and 
Charleston, and commanded, I think, by Captain 
Crofts ; paid fifty dollars for his passage, and bespoke 
the kind attentions of the worthy Captain, who, I 
understood afterwards, left nothing undone to render 
the voyage as comfortable as possible. He arrived in 
Charleston in due time, and was well received by 
•Bishop England, who, to do him justice, possessed 
many of the kindest feelings of the human heart, and 
exhibited through life one of the strangest mixtures of 
24 



552 AURICULAR CONFESSION AN1> 

religion and infidelity, of charity and bigotry, of re- 
publicanism and toryism, of Christianity and idolatry, 
and of humility and intolerance, that perhaps ever 
existed in the Popish Church in this country. But, 
" nihil de mortuis nisi bonum^^^ he and I have had some 
severe sparring at each other ; we were friends in pri- 
vate, but enemies in public ; he knew I was right, but 
was afraid to acknowledge it; he wished^ me well, but 
dared not avow it ; he loved his mitre, but I despised 
it, and though I would cherish the head that wore it, I 
would kick in the dust the Popish gewgaw itself. 
But, " adremr Bishop England, soon after the arrival 
of the priest O. S., advised him to enter on a retreat^ 
in order to prepare himself for the mission on which 
he was about to send him. He did so ; and after a 
due course of instruction upon the arduous and delicate 
duties of a confessor, he appointed him parish priest 

of , in one of the States over which he, as he 

modestly termed it, had spiritual jurisdiction. 

There lived in the parish to which this now Rev. 
confessor was appointed, a gentleman of respectability 
and wealth. Bishcp England supplied this new mis- 
sionary with strong letters of introduction to this gen- 
tleman, advising him to place his children under his 
charge, and assuring him that they should be brought 
up in the fear of God and love of religion. The 
family was large, — there were several daughters, some 
partly grown up, and others quite young. Those 
alone who know the joyous and happy life of a plant- 
er's family, in good circumstances, can form any ade- 
quate idea of the bliss and happiness that reigned 
among these children, I happened to leave the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 555 

church soon after the departure of my quondam friend, 

and was located in business in , through which 

he passed to his place of destination. His conscience 
would not permit him to call upon me. I had just 
renounced the Pope of Rome as the beast spoken of 
in the scriptures. I was a heretic^ and no good Popish 
Christian was permitted even to pay me my just 
debts. He passed on, and what, think you, Ameri- 
cans, were the fruits of his mission? He prevailed 
upon the eldest daughter of the respectable gentleman 
to whom he was introduced, to go to confession to 
him, and the next 1 heard of him was, that he had 
been seen passing at full speed, in a light sulky, 
through the village where I kept my office ; and what, 
think you, was the cause of this speed ? what drove 
him in such haste from his parochial residence? Do 
you not know reader ? can you not anticipate? Has 
not the insight which I have given you into the immo- 
rality of Popish priests, already suggested to you that 
this individual was a fugitive from some crime, and 
that its avenger was in pursuit of him ? It was so, 
reader. This Reverend Popish wretch seduced the 
eldest daughter of his benefactor, and the father, be- 
coming aware of the fact, armed himself with a case 
of pistols and determined to shoot the seducer. But 
there was in the house a good Catholic servant, who 
advised the seducer to fly. He did so, in the man- 
ner I have stated, with the insulted father in full pur- 
suit of him ; but the fugitive was in time to take 
steam and thus eluded his pursuer. He soon arriv- 
ed in Charleston, the Right Reverend Bishop under- 
stood his case, advised him to go to confession^ ab* 



556 AURICULAR rO.VFERSION AND 

solved him from his sin, and having washed hina 
white and immaculate as a snow-drop, sent him on to 
New York to preach morality to the Gothamites, who 
enjoy the superlative beatitude of being under the 
spiritual jurisdiction of Bishop Hughes. 

But this is only the beginning of the tale, and dis- 
tasteful as it must be to you, Right Reverend guard- 
ians of the morality of the Popish Church, you must 
sit still awhile. I am well aware of your impatience : 
you dislike control of any kind ; so do all people of 
rude manners, narrow intellects, and sour tempers, 
such as all Popish bishops, with whom I have been 
acquainted, possess. One single happy recollection 
of the past, a single grateful feeling, has never ele- 
vated nor sweetened the life of a Popish bishop, as far 
as I have ever known ; and it is perhaps requiring 
too much of you, my beloved brethren, — brethren 
you know we are, in spite of what heretics can do,. 
— to ask you to sit down patiently and hear me out. 
You will have to do it though, and I trust it may be 
for your benefit hereafter. 

As soon as your erring brother disgraced and de- 
bauched the daughter of an American citizen, and ob- 
tained remission for so doing from his ghostly father^ 
in the confessional, his victim, after a little time, having 
given birth to a fine boy, goes to confession herself and 
sends her child of sin to the Sisters of Charity resid- 
ing in , to be taken care of as * nullius filius.^ As 

soon as this child was able to walk, a Roman Catholic 
lady, v/ho knew the whole transaction, adopted the 
child as her own; and states now, as she has done all 
along, to her acquaintances, that it was a poor unknown 



POPISH I»fUNNERIES. 657 

orphan whom she found in the streets, without father 
or mother to claim it. But the very gist of the story 
is to come yet. The real mother of the child soon 
after removed to the city of , told the whole trans- 
action in confession^ to the Roman Catholic Bishop of 
, who, knowing that she had a handsome prop- 
erty, introduced her to a highly respectable Protestant 
gentleman, who soon after married her. Nor is this all 
the kind Bishop has done. He soon after introduced to 
this gentleman the sister of charity who had provided 
for the illicit offspring of this priest, concealing its 
parentage and representing it as having no father nor 
mother living. The gentleman was pleased with the 
boy, and the holy Bishop finally prevailed upon him 
and his wife to adopt the child as their own. Here is 
a pretty specimen of Jesuitism! The boy is the child 
of a priest, the wife is the mother of the child, 'and 
the husband is the dupe of the Bishop, adopting as 
his own child that of a priest by his own wife. Here 
is a pretty specimen of a Jesuit web. Would that I 
had the talent of a Eugene Sue to unravel it and 
stretch it from one end of this country to the other. 
Look at the affair yourselves, Americans ; examine it 
in all its atrocious bearings, from beginning to end, 
and say if you have ever heard or read of a more 
brutal outrage upon morality and domestic happiness, 
4l Popish bishop sends one of his priests on a mis- 
sion, with the ostensible view of converting American 
citizens from the evil of their ways, and the eiTors of 
their Protestant doctrines. Americans receive him hos- 
pitably ; he selects from among them one of their most 
fascinating daughters; seduces her in the confessional^ 



558 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



the Infallible Church makes provision for the illici* 
offspring of the seduction ; the crime and the conse- 
quence are both concealed by the bishop. He induces 
a respectable man to marry this prostitute, and con- 
trives, by the secret machinery of Popery, to dupe 
him still farther, by prevailing on him to adopt the off- 
spring of his prostituted wife as his own son ; and the 
whole of this is effected, at least so far as the adoption 
of the child is concerned, through the instrumentality 
of a sister of charity now living and residing in the 

city of . The mother knew at the time, that the 

child whom her deceived husband adopted as a desti- 
tute orphan was her own. The husband is now living, 
a worthy and respectable man, and the scoundrel priest, 
who brought sorrow into the house of his father-in- 
law and sent him prematurely to his grave, has been 
frequently a guest at his table. 

Do Bishops Hughes and Fenwick desire the names 
of the parties to this tragic and villanous outrage 
upon American credulity ? They are known to me 
personally. The seduction took place about eighteen 
years ago, and the Reverend Popish seducer has been, 
not long since, and perhaps is now, located some- 
where in the vicinity of Worcester, Mass. 

Dolts, double dolts, as the Jesuit Rodin, of Eugene 
Seu notoriety, observed of all who are the dupes of 
Papists, — how long will you permit yourselves to be 
the dupes of Popish priests and Jesuits? You are 
now building a college — aye, a Jesuit college — in 
the very centre of New England, — Worcester, Mass. 
You do not wish, I presume, that the race of Jesuita 
should be extinct amongst you ; and if you canno* 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 559 

obtain them otherwise than by importation, you are 
natm*ally fearful that such may be the case ; hence it 
is, perhaps, that you are liberally contributing your 
money to build colleges for the education of priests, 
and schools for sisters of Charity. Your great anx- 
iety for encouraging domestic manufactures might 
have influenced you in this respect, and you may rest 
assured — or even take my word for it — that as long 
as you have Popish colleges and Popish nunneries 
side by side, your semi-annual dividends of Jesuits 
and nuns, amongst the States of the Union, will be 
entirely satisfactory to you. But, to be serious, if 
Popery be studied as it should be by Americans, it will 
prove a useful lesson to the rising generation. 

For twenty years this country has been more im- 
posed upon than any other, for the same length of 
time, by Popish priestcraft ; so much so that the 
people are now become accustomed to the repetition 
of their enormous frauds, and are no longer surprised 
at them. I confess that it is the gross impostures 
which I saw practised upon Americans, that first 
prompted me to expose them. I have tried, and am 
now trying, to give some rational account of the extra- 
ordinary phemomenon that Popery should predomi- 
nate among a people almost proverbial for their intelli- 
gence and inquiring disposition. I thought, and do 
now think, that nothing can be more acceptable and 
valuable to Americans, than a well-authenticated state- 
ment of some of the practices adopted by Papists to 
impose upon the Protestants of this country; nor did I 
Bee any other manner of removing the almost national 

insanky of our citizens, in relation to the Romish 

24* 



560 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Church, than by laying before them facts and acts, to 
manv of which I have been myself an eye-witness. 
How American Protestants could continue for any 
length of time — even for a month or week — ignorant 
of the schemes of the Church of Rome, or her de- 
signs for the overthrow of this republic, has often 
been to me a matter of no little surprise; it can 
only be accounted for by a supposition almost as 
extravagant, viz., that Popery has never been properly 
studied by Americans. I have proposed all along, and 
I now repeat the proposal to Americans, to accom- 
pany me in the study of Popery. If the Romish 
Church be studied as it ought to be, by the young and 
the old of our citizens, it will prove a useful lesson to 
the present and coming generations, — but that lesson 
must be studied well. It must not be run over care- 
lessly ; its elements must be examined in order to 
understand the whole machinery of Popery; the whole 
plan of it must be remodelled ; and in order to effect 
this, it must be taken to pieces, and every piece care- 
fully and separately examined. It has been long hid- 
den from the public eye ; it has been a long time con- 
sidered a treasure exclusively belonging to the Popish 
priests. They have buried it for safe keeping in the 
dark and dreary vaults of corrupt Rome. These 
vaults must be opened, the gilded columns with which 
they are surrounded must be torn down, and all must 
be laid bare to the naked eye. The divine laws or 
systems of morality, intended for the government of 
man, should be always open to his inspection, and 
nothing short of the steady effort of our people can 
effect this or rescue ourselves or our country from the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 56l 

evils with which we are now threatened b}'' the machi- 
nations of the Popish Church. The crimes and im- 
moralities of Romish priests have long been crying to 
heaven for vengeance ; they now cry for it from every 
quarter of the globe. I have said that they have been 
crying for vengeance, for centuries back. I have 
proved the fact to the satisfaction of any man who is 
not wilfully blind to truth. But I shall not rest here ; I 
will give you other proofs. Cardinal Campaggio, 
who was sent to England to arrange the divorce of 
Queen Catharine, informs us — every English histo- 
rian knows this fact — "that a priest, who marries, com- 
mits a greater sin than if he kept many concubines." 
Here is a specimen of pure Popish molality, promul- 
gated by a Cardinal^ a man next in office to the Pope 
himself, with the full sanction of the said Pope, and 
the whole conclave of Cardinals of which he was a 
member ; and yet the religion of this man, and that 
of Bishop Hughes, and Bishop Fenwick, is the very 
religion which Americans are now endeavoring to 
introduce into this country, and fasten upon the souls 
and consciences of our people. 

Let us now see what St. Bernard says, — and here 
I entreat the reader, to keep in mind the fact, that St. 
Bernard lived between the sixth and sixteenth cen- 
turies; that very time, at which the Popish Church 
in the United States tells us, through its apostle 
Brownson, that it displayed a remarkable degree of 
activity. St. Bernard lived in the twelfth century, and 
as Bishop Hughes, Bishop Fenwick, and their mouth- 
piece, the infidel Brownson, inform us, was one of the 
greatest and best men of the age. There was no ap- 



562 



AUKICULAR CONFESSION AND 



peal, in his day, from the opinion of St. Bernard ; be 
was looked up to by the whole Romish Church, as a 
model for the imitation of the Romish clergy, and it 
is not at all likely that he would calumniate, traduce, 
or do any injustice to a body of men of which he 
was himself a member. What does St. Bernard say 
of the priests of his day ? Hear it, Americans ! hear it, 
you sympathisers I you who can scarcely read my 
accusations against the priests of the United States. 
Listen ! all you who bow the knee, and kiss the hands, 
the rings, the robes and the other gewgaws worn by 
these angels^ Hughes and Fenwick ; listen! all of you, to 
what St. Bernard says. " Priests commit such acts of tur- 
pitude in secret as it would be scandalous to express." 
Chamancis, a Romish priest and an orthodox writer, 
well known to Bishops Hughes and Fenwick — if 
they know any thing besides political intriguing — de- 
clares, and calls the attention of his readers to the fact, 
that the adultery^ impiety, and obscenity of priests 
[Romish] is beyond description. " They crowd^'' says 
he, '-'•into houses of ill fame; in gambling and in danc- 
ing, they are seen to pass from the company of infa- 
mous women, from the altar to the mass. To veil a 
woman in these convents,^^ continues Chamancis, " is 
synonymous with prostituting herP This distinguished 
writer, and virtuous reprover of the Popish priesthood, 
died about the middle of the fourteenth century, just 
at the period when, according to Popish writers in 
the United States, Popery flourished in all its glory. 
Mezerey, a French historian, and as good authority as 
Papists can desire, he being a Papist himself, assures 
us, that before the English Reformation, the whole 
body of the Romish priesthood were fornicators. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 5G3 

What say the sympathisers of Popery to this ? 
Has Mezerey told an old lie ? Has Chamanci.s told 
an old lie in telling us that it was a common practice 
in Popish countries, for Catholic bishops and priests 
to pass from houses of ill fame, and from the com- 
pany of infamous women, to the altar and to the 
mass. 

This will not be believed in the United States. 
" There is not a word of truth in it," says the pro- 
fessed infidel. " I will not believe a word of it," says 
the busy Puseyite, Prude ; ".it cannot be that the dear 
priests would be guilty of such things." I will frank- 
ly confess that it is difficult to believe statements so 
entirely abhorrent to human nature as those given by 
Popish priests against their own brethren, and I will 
not deny, that it took me a long time, before I could 
yield more than a reluctant assent to many of them : 
nor did I ever fully give them sanction until I had 
made a personal examination into their truth. But, 
now that I have made that examination, I declare 
most solemnly, upon the honor of a man, that, as 
Chamancis expresses it, it is a common practice for 
priests, in all the Roman Catholic countries in which I 
have been, to go direct from houses of ill fame to the 
altar and to the mass. This I have seen and witnessed 
myself. 

But it will be asked, " how do you know ? you 
must have been in^hose places yourself." I plead 
guilty to the charge, if charge the enemy of morality 
will make of it. While in the cities of Mexico and 
Havana, about two years ago, at considerable personal 
expense, T visited many of the dens frequented b^ 



50 1 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Popish priests, especially in the city of Mexico. I 
went there for the benefit and better information of my 
fellow beings. I did not then, neither do I now, ac- 
cuse myself of any violation of the first principles of 
morality ; I believe, on the contrary, that I am entitled 
to some degree of commendation from my Protestant 
fellow citizens, for the efforts which I have made, in 
Mexico and Havana, to ascertain the truth or false- 
hood of those complaints which we daily hear against 
the immoralities of Popish bishops, priests, and nuns. 

How many have we seen plunging themselves into 
the midst of disease, contagion, and death, for the 
good of their fellow beings, and for the sole purpose 
of advancing the science of medicine ! and is nothing 
to be done, or shall nothing be done for the science 
of morals? Must we stand and fold our arms while 
the malaria of Popery is stalking all over our land, 
carrying death and disease with it wherever it goes ? 
Paralyzed be that arm which would fold itself in such 
a case ! 

I have often seen men who were ornaments to so- 
ciety, who were the pride, the comfort, and perhaps the 
sole support of their wives and children, whom they 
loved and almost adored, plunging themselves into the 
midst of yellow fever, or perhaps Asiatic Cholera, for 
the benetit of mankind and almost at the certain peril 
of their own lives ; and shall a man who loves religion 
and the cause of morals, do nothing to exalt, to glorify 
the great cause of salvation ? shall he not risk some- 
thing, to confirm the statements which are crowding 
upon us day after day, in relation to the immorality of 
Popish priests ? 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 665 

During my residence in Mexico, the following cir- 
cumstance occurred, to my own knowledge: an English 
gentleman, then, and I believe now residing in Mexico, 
met me by appointment, at my hotel, soon after dusk 
in the evening. The object of his calling upon me was 
to comply with a request, which I had previously 
made, that he would accompany me to one of the 
most fashionable houses of ill fame and gambling, 
where he knew the higher orders and dignitaries of 
the Roman Catholic Church were in the habit of visit- 
ing, and making assignations, with the wives and 
daughters of the members of their respective congre- 
gations. He stated that an entrance to the house 
where he was going to carry me would cost me a 
doubloon, and that if I wished to become thoroughly 
acquainted with the mysteries of the place and obtain 
access to it in future, I should spend two or three 
more doubloons at the game of Monte, a favorite 
game of priests and women of loose habits in Mexico. 
Chamancis imniediately occurred to me ; I recollected 
the account which he had given of the priests of the 
Romish Church. Here was an opportunity of testing 
the accuracy of his statements ; here was a chance of 
knowing, from the testimony of my own senses, 
whether Popish priests were or were not the incar- 
nate demons which he , nd others represented them to 
be; and I determined to avail myself of an opportu- 
nity which might never again occur. Accordingly I 
accompanied my friend, and, by his advice, took notes 
of the transactions of that evening of my life. It will 
not be expected, I presume, that I should give here, 
a transcript of those notes ; it would be improper to 



566 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

do so ; delicacy forbids it; it probably might do more 
harm than good. There is such a thing as driving a 
screw too far ; it may be forced so as to split the timber 
it was designed to secure. I shall avoid this, if pos- 
sible, but there is a circumstance which it is my duty 
to mention, and which shows in a clearer light than 
any other I could adduce, the utter degradation, and 
worse than idolatry, of those unfortunate beings who 
are strictly educated in the practices of Popery, but 
particularly in Popish confession. 

Let the reader fancy to himself one of the most 
splendid residences in the city of Mexico ; let him 
further place himself in imagination in a gorgeously 
furnished suit of rooms, occupied by a number of the 
most lascivious-looking females, most of them wearing 
veils. Let him further fancy a Romish priest entering 
those rooms, and one of those women advancing to 
meet him, and then prostrating herself on her knees 
to ask his blessing and kiss the hem of his garment. 
Let him further fancy this debased wretch of a priest 
imparting his blessing to this daughter of sin and 
error, and he will form a better idea of the immorality 
of Popish priests, and the incalculable evils which, 
under the mask of sanctity, they are capable of doing, 
than it is in my power to give him. Let the reader, 
if he will, fill up the space between the entrance of 
this solemn-looking villain into the synagogue of Sa- 
tan, and his departure from it, and then say whether 
Chamancis exaggerated the enormities of those sins 
and hidden crimes committed and sanctioned by Pop- 
ish priests. I kept my eye upon one of those priests, 
from the" moment he entered this house of ill fame 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 5G7 

> 

until twelve o'clock at night. At the moment the 
clock struck twelve, he and I were drinking cham- 
pagne, and 1 sat with him from that until four o'clock 
in the morning, when I accompanied him to mass. 
He had no idea of my being a Protestant; and believ- 
ing me to be a Roman Catholic, all restraint was laid 
aside, and thus I enjoyed the sorrowful pleasure, if I 
may so say, of witnessing Popery in "jowm natural' 
ibus^ Revolting and repugnant as the scene which I 
witnessed appeared to me, there was still something in 
it which struck at my heart a heavier blow than that 
which met my eye. Ignorance — Popish ignorance 

— was at the bottom of all this. What but ignorance 

— ignorance of her rights — of nature's rights — igno- 
rance of all that tends to elevate nature, could induce 
those women to go and prostrate themselves before a 
common partner in their guilt, and ask his blessing? 
Oh ! the sceptre which Popish ignorance sways over 
mankind is an iron sceptre. Popery sways it over 
some of the finest regions inhabited by man. Witness 
Mexico. Under its icy influence there can arise no 
generous, no daring spirit of adventure in the cause 
of God ; subjection and fear soon become the predom- 
inant passions of humanity ; all the noble faculties of 
man are chilled and frozen. Robe ignorance in 
purple, as it is in the Romish Church, and everything 
must wither before its march ; there can be no con- 
templative delights or pleasured where Popery rules. 
There can be nothing pure, nothing intellectual, to 
raise man from the mire of sensuality to any degree 
of excellence, dignity, or honor ; all must be reduced 
to that state in which we now find the people and 



588 . AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

priests in Mexico. Without knowledge or the means 
of obtaining it^ the mind of man necessarily falls into 
a state of weakness and imbecility. Education, and 
that the education of the Bible, is to the mind of 
man what food is to the body. Have you ever ob- 
served, reader, that a mind destitute of a Bible educa- 
tion invariably acquires a sort of low cunning? It is 
intent upon no higher purpose than something mean 
and selfish. Is it not so in the whole population of 
Mexico ? and I ask the candid historian if it is not so 
in every country where Popery prevails ? 

A degradation of the understanding, and an igno- 
rance like that which we now see in Mexico, among 
the poor Irish, and among the poor of all Catholic 
countries, is in all cases accompanied by what is 
worse than ignorance, if possible, — great wickedness 
and depravity of heart. They are not able in Mexico, 
or in those other countries under Popish sway, to oc- 
cupy themselves in the energies of thought, in honora- 
ble action, in refined manners and conversation, in 
trade, in learning, in national improvements, in naviga- 
tion, manufactui'es, canals, and railroads. No ; the 
very reverse is the fact. I appeal to history to sustain 
the assertion. The dupes of Popery in Mexico, Spain, 
Ireland, Italy, and elsewhere, are engaged in mischiev- 
ous trifles, wanton habits, and wickedness, which ren- 
der them the most useless and troublesome citizens in 
the whole circle of society. 

Fallen indeed they are, froi^i what they ought to be. 
Who can recognize — notwithstanding their external 
configuration — in the Papists of the present day, their 
lineal descent from the Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 569 

and Maletians, — the glory of their times, the instructors 
of the world, and the benefactors of humanity. God 
stamped his image upon these men. He stamped it 
upon every created being at the hour of his birth. He 
created man a little less than the angels ; but the glo- 
rious image seems obliterated ; the divine stamp seems 
to have been broken, and man can scarcely now be 
known by his resemblance to his Maker. Popery', that 
curse of the earth, that scourge of mankind, that 
source of moral e^ and fountain of death and sin, 
has been allowed to flow in upon us, and thus the 
great land-marks of humanity have been removed, — 
the divine stamp almost ceases to be visible* 

Popery has in its spirit something malignant, some- 
thing hateful and hostile to all who profess a different 
creed. All acquainted with the history of Popery, can 
bear testimony to the fact that there is an undying 
hope and wish in the mind of all Catholics, that 
the Protestant religion should be entirely extirpated. 
There may be, and there undoubtedly are, exceptions 
to this rule ; so there are to every other rule ; but there 
is no denying the general truth, that the extirpation of 
the Protestant religion, and of the whole Protestant 
race, together with the confiscation of Protestant prop- 
erty, and the overthrow of all Protestant governments, 
Eire among the fondest hopes of the Popish Church. 
This cannot be disguised, at least from those who have 
been educated in the doctrines of the Popish church. 
Many Catholics there are, I admit, who would be 
glad, and who even endeavor to disguise this from 
themselves ; but they cannot do it ; it is a truth as well 
established as any other ; it is as plain as the sun in 



570 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



the heavens, however they may try to conceal it 
This, like other truths, will be denied in the United 
States ; but it is perfectly useless to conceal the fact 
from our people. Watch the progress of Popery in a 
neighboring country ; seethe efforts which O'Conneli 
is making in Ireland, under the immediate sanction of 
the Pope of Rome, to overthrow the Protestant gov- 
ernment of England, and to reduce that country to 
obedience to the court of Rome ; look at the proceed- 
ings of the bishops of the Romish Church in this 
country, and ask yourselves what they are aiming at. 
" L-eland for the Irish," says O'Conneli, the Pope's 
agent at the other side of the Channel. "Americans 
shant rule us," say the Pope's agents in the United 
States. Can language be plainer than this? Can 
treason be expressed in stronger or more emphatic 
language? O'Conneli means Ireland for the Pope. 
Bishop Hughes of New York, and the other Popish 
agents in this country, clearly mean, and wish to be 
understood so — the United States for the Pope. I 
ask any man whether the language of O'Conneli and 
the Pope's agents in this country, is even susceptible 
of any other interpretation ? What meaning can we 
attach to the words of Bishop Hughes, who is the 
Pope's organ in the Empire State of New York, ex- 
cept that which is plain and obvious — Aw,ericar)S 
shant rule us. Who, then, does this Popish agent 
want to rule them ? Obviously the Pope of Rome. 
I can scarcely suppose him or his brother Mshops sub- 
ject to such lunacy as to fancy for a moment that he 
could bring this great nation into subjection to the 
Pope of Rome ; but must we not admit, at the same 



POPISH NUxNNERIES. 571 

time, that his language, and the entire political course 
of his Popish brethren, during the last year or two, have 
looked very much like it. Have not Papists all over 
the world, during the last few years, assumed a more 
daring and menacing attitude ? Have not their lan- 
guage and measures, even in this country, become 
more turbulent and insurrectional? Let Americans 
ponder well upon this. It is not long since O'Connell, 
the Pope's mouth-piece for this country, as well as 
Ireland, addressed the deluded Irish in the following 
language; and remember, Americans, that I tell you 
Bishop Hughes of New York, and every other Popish 
bishop in the United States, will soon make use of 
similar words to their respective flocks in this country : 
" Force and violence are not to be used. If the time 
for using them were to come, there is one here will tell 
you that the time has come." You will also recollect, 
Americans, that I tell you that they will receive for 
answer that which the Pope's agent received in Ire- 
land — " v)e will follow^ Popish bishops and priests 
will preach peace to their people, but let not Ameri- 
cans forget that they have confessionals, where they 
can infuse into their minds the poison of rebellion and 
treason. When a Popish bishop preaches peace, he 
means it not ; he means war to the knife with heretics 
and heresy. Robespierre, shortly before the French 
Revolution, delivered a series of lectures against capi- 
tal punishment; and sooner should I trust him for 
sincerity, than I would a Popish priest when he cries 
peace with heretics. That blood-thirsty and sanguin- 
ary villain, Robespierre, exhorted his followers not to 
confiscate the property of those who might be found 



573 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

guilty of opposition to the people; but much safer 
should I consider the property or estate of him who 
incurred the displeasure of Robespierre, than I should 
that of an American Protestant citizen who fell into 
the hands of the Pope's agent and executioner in the 
United States. 

Murat, a character well known to the readers of 
the history of the French Revolution, lectured loudly 
against capital punishment; but what was his conduct? 
He consigned more to the guillotine than any other 
man in France. His hands were stained with blood ; 
but bloody as his hands were, and thirsty for more 
blood as his heart was, much sooner would I have 
trusted myself to him, and much safer should a Protest- 
ant feel himself in such hands, than in those of a Pop- 
ish bishop or priest. But it is not my present purpose 
to expatiate upon the cruelties of Popery ; I will only 
state incidentally that the Protestant citizens of this 
country have much to fear from the influx of Papists 
amongst them, not only in a moral, but a political 
point of view. Nearly the whole body of Irish Ro- 
man Catholics have resolved to migrate to this country. 
They will do so, if that treacherous disturber of their 
peace and happiness, Daniel O'Connell, does not suc- 
ceed in overthrowing the Protestant government in 
England. Extensive preparations are already being 
made in this country for their reception, together with 
their leader, if they can effect his escape from the 
gallows. The Catholic population of Ireland is at 
present 6,620,000. This immense body are united, to 
a man, in that abominable belief. Heretici destraindi 
sunt. This is a fundamental article of Popish faith. 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 573' 

No faith is to be kept with heretics. It is firmly be- 
lieved by the six millions and upward of Irish Roman 
Catholics, that the Pope is the lawful head of their 
church. Disguise this as they may, entangle it as they 
can, in Popish sophistry, the fact is not the less true. 
Assuming it to be so, Americans can easily fancy the 
inevitable danger of admitting Catholics among them 
without strong and safe restrictions. 

Many there are, and those, too, men of great moral 
worth, who do not deem it necessary or proper to 
impose any restrictions whatever on the admission of 
Papists amongst us; they seem to think, and maintain 
their opinion with some show of reason, that Popery 
may now, as in former times, prove advantageous 
to society. These philanthropists evidently mistake 
Popery for Christianity. I have had occasionally 
many interesting conversations with some of my fel- 
low citizens, on the subject, and have found that not a 
few of them have taken up the strange idea, that 
because Popery, or rather Christianity, was greatly 
instrumental in checking the first inroads of martial 
power and barbarity upon civil society and Christian 
peace, its progress in this country, comparatively new, 
must be accompanied by similar blessings. Papists 
frequently and tauntingly ask Protestants " Where 
would be your Bible, were it not for our Church ? " 
and let it be understood, that they invariably mean, 
by our Churchy the Church of Christ. Many of the 
poor followers of the Pope are sincere in asking this 
question ; and so totally ignorant are they of the very 
elements of Christianity, that they really believe the 
Bible could not exist, if their church were overtb»:owA. 



571 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

It is questioned by statesmen, and by many politicEil 
philosophers, whether it is good policy to disturb this 
delusion. European statesmen contend that it is not, 
and it is much to be regretted that many of our 
American statesmen seem to incline to the same opin- 
ion. The French philosophers — at least their politi- 
cal philosophers — seem all of one mind upon the 
subject, and contend, with great plausibility, that opin- 
ions which have stood the test of time for a given 
number of years, had better be left undisturbed. 

Many have gone even so far as to say that " igno- 
rance is bliss ; " but this sentiment, and such philoso- 
phy, is too stale for the present generation. It has 
had its day ; Popery lent to it its powerful aid in the 
middle ages, and bitter indeed were its fruits. The 
Popish church, too, has had its day ; so had the Jew- 
ish church, and much is due to both for the good 
which they have done. Many in both those churches, 
and during their respective influence, could see no 
farther than that " ignorance was bliss " to the savage 
hordes who first formed the nucleus of social and civil 
society. Did they know in their savage state the 
extent of their animal power, without mind to direct its 
force and capability of evil, the consequences would 
be, nc^t social order or distributive justice, but univer- 
sal chios and general confusion. Ignorance may be 
said t) have been bliss to these unlettered hordes and 
savages ; science and literature, had they blazed upon 
them in their full noon brilliancy, would not have been 
apreciated by them, they would only have dazzled and 
confounded them still more. It would be dangerous 
to place within the reach of a thirsty savage a bowl 



POPISH NUiNNERIES. ^'^ 

of Prussic acid ; he might drain to the dregs the fatal 
poison, and thus that which, in the hands of science, 
might have been useful and legitimate, would become 
the instrument of death. 

It would be unsafe to place a lighted torch in the 
hand of a sportive child, and send him to play with it 
in a powder magazine ; the consequence might be 
death to him and to all around him. It was probably 
so at one time with science and learning. It was 
perhaps, in a great measure, bliss to be without them, 
until the human mind was prepared to make a proper 
use of both ; it is so even in the animal and vegetable 
world, and why should it not be so in the world of 
mind and thought ? Who, for instance, would place 
on a horse a harness which youth and want of exercise 
did not enable it to carry? Who would sow wheat 
in a soil unprepared to receive it ? No prudent man 
would do either ; and certainly much credit is due to 
those early Christians, and even to Jews and Papists, 
for what they have done, and for anything they have 
effected in preparing the minds, especially those of 
northern barbarians, for the reception of the sciences, 
but particularly the glorious science of the Christian 
religion, with all its saving truths and holy principles. 

Infinite indeed are the obligations under which our 
ancestors have placed us, in opening our minds and 
preparing them for the reception of so many moral 
and scientific truths; and if the Popish church has 
contributed in any measure to this, I am as willing to 
thank her and give her full credit for all she has done, 
as the most hypocritical Jesuit that ever lived, or the 
most liberal Christian that practically denies human 



576 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

^iepravity. But are there no more truths to be evolved, 
?ither in moral or civil science, than those which have 
oeen open to oui- view in the infancy of the Romish 
3hurch, and for which I, for one, am willing to give 
her credit in all that she has done ? Were there not 
many sources opened, even in the days of the glories 
of the Jewish Church, and Romish Church, too, which 
lave been closed up, and must remain closed forever? 
Was not the Jewish religion, when it first dawned 
apon that devoted people, like the early beams of 
some fresh morning, fragrant and cheering to the cap- 
tive in his cell? But that religion has passed away. 
It was glorious in its time ; but does it follow, did it 
follow, or can it follow, that we should now embrace 
it ? Must we hug the shadow, when the substance 
ceases to exist ? 

The outward form of the Romish church was once 
attractive and beautiful in the extreme; its gorgeous 
ceremonies, its high masses, the vestments of its 
priests, its music, its processions, its indulgences, its 
semi-pagan, or rather worse nhan pagan, idolatries, had 
in them much that was imposing, and well suited to 
their times ; they were calculated to overawe northern 
barbarians, — then the enemies of Christianity and of 
civil rights. The Church of Rome did much to pre- 
vent the few^ among these barbarians from trampling 
to the dust the rights of their serfs, who constituted a 
vast majority of the people, and for this I am as wil- 
ling as any other to give her credit ; but the Church 
of Rome has done her -work long since ; her days of 
glory are numbered — her sun has long since set — 
not in triumph, but in blood — not in victory, but in 
death. 



POPISH NUJN'NERIES. 5T7 

BqJ Popery seems now to be gathering up her ener- 
gies — at least she is endeavoring to do so — and looks 
upon this new country as a proper field to make the 
experiment; and there are serious doubts upon the 
minds of some, whether she will not succeed, at least 
in a measure, in partially re-establishing her ancient 
power in this new country. She is disposed to strug- 
gle hard for it. Already has the tocsin of war been 
sounded along her lines — her recruiting officers are 
abroad — she has her depots here and there and 
everywhere — her paymasters and spiritual recruiting 
sergeants are to be met with at all points. Go to the 
woods of Oregon, — travel along its meandering and 
fertilizing streams, -— and you will find them there, 
preaching freedom, liberty of conscience, and equal 
rights. Go into the swamps of Texas, and you find 
them there, too, advocating civil rights, liberty of con- 
science, and perpetual slavery. Irr Oregon and New 
England we find Papists shouting O'Connell, the 
Pope, and the abolition of slavery. In the Southern 
States of the Union and in Texas, they hurrah for 
slavery — slavery not for a day, for a year, or a term 
of years — but forever ! In the Northern States they 
brand the slaveholders with the epithets — robbers^ 
slave-breeders y and stealers of men. In the South and 
in Texas, they denounce the Northerners as fanatics^ 
pirates^ and sons of pirates. How long Americans 
will tolerate these wolves in sheep's clothing among 
them, it is difficult to say ; but one thing I fear is cer- 
tain, that as long as they have oats, and Americans 
countenance among them Barn-burners^ But-Enders, 
Repealers, and Empire Clubs, under the popular 



578 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

name of Democrats, the evil to which I allude will 
continue. 

It is said that Popery is on the increase in the 
United States, and there, are not wanting some argu- 
ments to prove it. But though 1 have taken some 
pains, and perhaps as much as any other man in the 
country, to ascertain the truth of this assertion, I am 
still unconvinced on the subject. It is also asserted 
that Popery is on the increase all over the world, and 
must continue to increase. Upon this, too, I have 
doubts ; I even believe that the contrary is the fact. 

If by the increase of Popery is meant the number 
of square miles, or the extent of countiy which they 
own or occupy, it may "be said, with some propriety, 
that if Popery is not advancing, it is not retrograding ; 
but if by the increase of Popery is meant that its 
creed and idolatrous doctrines are gaining ground, I 
flatly deny the assertion. " As another expresses it, a 
system that degrades can never advance. And that 
the doctrines of the Church of Rome do degrade, 
I think I have already proved. The Romish Church 
and its doctrines have crushed the spirit, and dead- 
ened the life of every country, and every people, that 
ever believed or maintained it; and shall our free 
spirits and bold intellects, in the nineteenth century, 
be broken and bowed down like those in Popish 
countries ? It can never be. But this is not the ques- 
tion, exactly. The question is, or ought to be. Is the 
Popish religion on the increase ? Does it gain upon 
the Protestant religion, or is it going ahead of it, as 
some even in these United States will have it ? This 
question can be easily answered ; and for that answer, 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 579 

which I am about to give, I acknowledge myself 
much indebted to an anonymous but elegant writer 
in the Protestant Quarterly Review for the month of 
January, 1846. "Ask yourselves which religion,— 
Protestant or Popish, — will spread widest in an age 
of science and knowledge — which is best fitted to 
the growth of the human mind? In all Protestant 
countries, wealth, intelligence, and a high civilization, 
are everywhere seen ; in all Catholic countries, dead- 
ness and decay rest upon everything which nature 
made beautiful. Under Protestantism, every depart- 
ment of science has made rapid progress. The very 
spirit of freedom breathes through the Newtonian and 
Baconian philosophy. Everywhere, from the harsh, 
barren soil of northern nations, sprang up life and 
light. England, Scotland, Prussia, in men of strong 
intellect, are superior to any of the older nations, in 
any preceding age. Mathematics, natural philosophy, 
metaphysics, ethics, commerce, agriculture, legislation 
— the whole extent of modern civilization — date from 
the Reformation, and exist only in Protestant countries. 
"And those nations of Europe which caught but a 
glimmer of liberal opinions, but which in the Catholic 
or Popish reaction were again subjected to Rome, are 
far in advance of those countries, beautiful as they 
are, in the South of Europe, which never saw Protest- 
antism. A single glance into the history of modern 
science, literature, and politics, will fully convince any 
candid mind of this. The entire spirit of northern 
institutions, their great progress, their growing intelli- 
gence, are all owing to Protestantism. They date 
their birth from it, they are thoroughly imbued with 



I., -* 



580 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

its spirit, they must live slill in its spirit. Firm gov- 
ernments and wise laws; just and liberal rulers; free 
and intelligent people; nobler views of man; nobler 
views of God ; more knowledge ; more liberty ; more 
faith ; — these have the genius of Protestantism im- 
parted, and in their ever-growing life it will live. 
How different from this is the condition of the old 
Catholic States I The noble palaces of Italy are de- 
serted ; banditti infest the beautiful shores of Campa- 
nia. The Dantes, the Petrarchs, the Tassos, ai*e gone 
forever. The poetry, the chivalry, the bright southern 
romance, the fiery southern valor, have passed av/ay ; 
miserable want and beggary, vagabond recklessness, 
and sullen, obstinate, threadbare pride, are the remains 
of fair Italy. Ireland with her poetry and merriment 
is silent and desponding ; her laughter has mournfully 
died away ; her sweet melodies, equally beautiful, 
whether sung sadly or gaily, are chanted by lips quiv- 
ering with emotion and parched by hunger and thirst. 
Popery has degraded and saddened her very soul. 

"Austria, tyrannous and bigoted, — an enemy to all 
freedom, whether of thought or action, — with her de- 
grading institutions, and decaying principles, is rather 
worse than poor Ireland. It is better to die than to 
kill. Spain, the birth-place of Loyola ; the valiant 
opponent of the crescent and turban, for near eight 
hundred years ; the land of brave knights and fair 
ladies ; of song and dance ; of literature, refinement, 
and elegant culture, — is wretched indeed. Squalid, 
seditious, fiercely proud and cruel, it now excites little 
compassion, still less of hate or fear. 

" How are we to account for this immeasurable dif- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 561 

ference between the realms of Protestantism and 
those of Catholicism ? Are the Italians inferior by 
nature to the Scotsmen, or the Spanish to the Danes? 
We cannot admit this ; all history and philosophy dis- 
prove it. Yet now, in their degradation, they can 
scarcely appreciate their ancient grandeur; while the 
heavy nations of the north, have suddenly leaped far 
beyond their utmost limit. The only cause which 
can be assigned for this, is the vast difference in 
the genius of the two religious influences ; Cathol- 
icism has blighted. Protestantism has advanced and 
strengthened. Can this ever be undone ? Has ali 
modern science been preaching a lie ? Have the last 
three centuries been pushing forward in the face of 
truth, and acting out the lie ? Can the onward sweep 
of civilization be retarded ? and must the work pause, 
and wait till the huge car of Rome can rumble slowly 
up and bear it onward into the caves of night again ? 
Forbid it Heaven, T cannot believe it." 

But the Papist will say, "it is evident, from the re- 
cent course of events in France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, 
nay, to some extent, in the United States, that Popery 
is gaining ground and making extraordinary efforts to 
insure ultimate success." Be it so. Even admitting 
that they are attempting and strenuously trying to ad- 
vance, that does not insure victory or final success. 
There are two broad and undeniable facts, which for- 
bid this result. One is, that from the beginning of the 
world to the present hour, man has steadily advanced 
'n progressive intelligence ; and the other is, that the 
mman mind has never been known to run backwards. 

Papists will say, and it is now said from theii 



582 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

pulpits, in these United States, " that Popery can ac- 
commodate, and will suit itself to the advancing 
acquirements of man, and finally conform to our free 
institutions." Let us look at this question, and fairly 
examine its truth or falsehood. Upon a correct under- 
standing of this subject, and upon it alone, can be 
founded a correct estimate or view of the ultimate fate 
of Popery in the United States. I flatter myself that 
I have proved, to the satisfaction of all Americans 
who have done me the honor of reading my books, 
that Popery has not changed in its doctrine or disci- 
pline ; or, that if any change has been effected in 
either, it is decidedly for the worse. A recent French 
writer, well known to the readers of history — La 
Mennais — has tested the doctrines of Popery by the 
principles of intellectual advancement. He proved 
that Popery and civil rights were incompatible with 
each other, and could not co-exist under any gov- 
ernment nor under any form or state of society. No 
argument could be more beautiful, more eloquent, 
or more convincing, than that by which he demon- 
strated to the world that human liberty and Christian 
liberty are antagonistic to Popery. He required no 
more from the Church of Kome than to conform to 
the simple principles of Christian freedom. His 
works are now extant, and I believe are to be had in all 
well furnished libraries in the United States. They 
can be seen and read by our fellow citizens, and they 
will find in perusing them that what I state is correct. 
The writings of La INIennais soon came to the ears 
of the Pope and his Inquisitors, and they were not 
^ng in discovering that if the principles contended foT 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 583 

by La Meniiais were admitted, the Popish Church 
must fall. There was no medium ; either that, or 
ever}^ other doctrine must be denied, and all argu- 
ments in favor of the civil rights of man had no 
foundation in fact. How did his Holiness, the Pope, 
act on this occasion ? I do not allude here, to any 
Pope of ancient times, I allude to the Pope who now 
lives, and presides over the Infallible Church, He 
cursed La Mennais ; he damned him and his writings. 
He insisted that La Mennais should write no more on 
the subject, and I blush for the honor of humanity, of 
mind, of talents, of genius, and liberty of thought, to 
state that La Mennais submitted to this tyrant Pope, 
and that only the other day, in 1833, though he de- 
clared to his friends, that, while he bowed to the 
Pope's supremacy, he felt that he was putting his 
name to the blasphemous admission that the Pope teas 
God. 

The Popish bishops of this country have the hardi- 
hood to say, that Popery is the friend and advocate of 
pure democracy, and that miserable tool of theirs, 
Brownson, says amen. They depute him to lecture 
upon this subject in almost all the large cities through- 
out the Union. He may do some injury to the morals 
of our people, but his reign cannot be of long dura- 
tion ; such is the character of the man, that whatever 
he says cannot fructify. He is, among our fellow citi- 
zens, what the ant is among a heap of corn ; it takes it 
to its winter store house to feed itself alone, but whoever 
will carefully examine the grain or corn which it takes 
from others, will find that it has no bud ; it destroys 

ihat, and thus* selfishly and mischievously prevents 
25* 



584 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

the grain from fructifying and enlarging. Brownson 
takes with him, and appropriates to himself, many 
plausible arguments from the works of eminent men, 
but the slightest contact, on his part, with the purest 
characters, is sufficient to destroy their vitality. If he 
were even to carry with him into the pulpit, the 
soundest principles of morality, his very presence, and 
past infidel life, would destroy their force ; and a cor- 
rect examination of them would show the Christian 
who might examine them, that they had no bud or 
vital principle within them and could produce no fruit 
It is said that some men come into this world with 
two left hands, two crooked eyes, a good deal of brains, 
and little or no organization of its faculties. Brown- 
son is one of those characters. He has two left hands, 
and was never known to do anything right ; whatever 
he touches he is sure to despoil and disfigure. Both 
his eyes are crooked ; he- has never yet been known to 
see anything straight ; so crooked are they, that he sees 
things only through the eyes of others. Hence it is, 
perhaps, that he never writes anything which is his 
own, but upon all subjects gives us the views of 
others, and as no two think aUke, in general. Brown- 
son's writings invariably contradict themselves. Add 
to this that great defect of order in his brain, and we 
cannot apprehend that his lectures will do much per- 
manent injury. This Brownson has appeared to me, 
during the short time I have been noticing his. move- 
ments and opinions, to be, in reality, a shallow-pated 
bombastic pretender to science and literature. He 
seems to know books just as some people know great 
men, they only learn their names, and then boast of 



POPISH NUNNERIES. oSo 

an intimate acquaintance with them. He talks very 
fluently about his intimacy with Tasso, Dante, Pe- 
trarch, Boccacio, and others. He and Boccacio seem 
to be as intimate as pickpockets (to use a common 
though vulgar phrase.) I wonder if Mr. Brownson 
recollects any of those anecdotes related by Boccacio 
about certain nuns, who lived in the vicinity 'of his 
father's residence? Will the illustrious changeling' 
permit me to bring one or two to his recollection ? 
One probably will be enough, as my readers may 
already have had sufficient information concerning the 
amusements practised by nuns and sisters of Charity 
in their convents. 

It seems there was a large establishment of nuns 
in the neighborhood were Boccacio resided. The 
mother Abbess was of noble descent, a fine fair-haired 
girl, young and beautiful. There happened to be, 
adjoining the nunnery, a friary ; among these friars, 
as Bocoacio tells us, in a work of his, which has since 
been suppressed by the Popes, was a young man of 
fine personal appearance, and who possessed, in a 
remarkable degree, the power of assuming any charac- 
ter he pleased. He was, besides, a ventriloquist, and 
could thus personate and imitate any character or 
any voice he chose. The mother Abbess took an 
extraordinary fancy to this young friar, and tried by 
every means in her power to have him appointed 
confessor and spiritual guide to the nuns.** But the 
Superior of the friary was not easily deceived. He 
peremptorily refused to listen to the most pious en- 
treaties of the mother Abbess, and positively declined 
giving the friar faculties to hear her confession, 



586 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



What was to be done in this case ? The holy nun 
soon hit upon an expedient. She sent for the friar^ 
who always had admission to an iron grating in the 
wall, which separated these holy nuns from this sinful 
world. She told the friar that her establishment was 
much in want of a gardener, and advised him to 
change his whole appearance, assume the character 
of a very old and feeble man, imitate his voice, and 
come the next day, with his spade on his shoulder, to 
apply for the situation of gardener to the nunnery. 
He accordingly came the next morning, thoroughly 
metamorphosed, and in the most doleful and piteous 
tones of distress and want, begged of the holy mother 
Abbess^ for the love she bore the blessed virgin Mary, 
to give him employment^ ivhereby he might support 
himself and his poor half-starved and bed-ridden wife. 
The holy nun moved by charity, and nothing else, of 
course, employed him as gardener ; and moved by 
compassion for the weak and feeble old man, she 
occasionally sent for him to her cell to nourish him 
with some wine and water. Verbum sat. The Prot- 
estant reader will not forget that Boccacio was a 
Koman Catholic and is quoted by Brownson, in his 
Review, as one of those luminaries which adorned the 
Popish Church between the sixth and sixteenth cen- 
turies. 

There was another, among the luminaries who 
flourished '' betwixt the sixth and sixteenth centuries," 
named Rabalais: I am rather surprised that Brown- 
son has not quoted him, as a model of a Christian 
bishop. He was a Roman Catholic bishop, and died 
m full communion with the Romish Church. He 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



587 



was laid in his coffin dressed in his episcopal robes. 
The works of Rabalais are very little read now-a- 
days, nor could I conscientiously recommend them to 
the attention of any Christian reader ; I allude to him 
with the sole view of giving Popish advocates the full 
advantage of the testimony and example of a Roman 
Catholic bishop in their favor. 

There was not, perhaps, in all France, a more ob- 
scene writer than Rabalais. He was remarkable how- 
ever for the depth and keenness of his satire. He felt 
the degradation of his position as a Popish bishop, 
but he wanted moral courage enough to renounce so 
advantageous a position* in society as that which the 
Romish Church assigned him. The only alternative 
left him, under these circumstances, was to try to 
effect some reform in his Church and the morals of its 
priests. He turned against them the arrows of his 
ridicule, and though the wounds and scars, which 
they left behind them, were broad and painful, yet 
there was so much justice in all his statements, that 
the Infallible Church dared not raise a finger against 
him. I refer Bishops Hughes, Fenwick, and their 
corporal^ Brownson, to his writings. They may, in all 
probability, find some similitude between themselves, 
their Popes, and other bishops, to those illustrious 
characters, Carragantua, Pantagruel, Trippet, and others 
so conspicuously alluded to in the works of Rabalais. 
I expect nothing else than censure for the bare men- 
tion of some of those writers to whom I have referred. 
It seems to have become quite fashionable now-a 
days with pulpit orators, to censure anything like gen- 
real reading ; at any rate, no fault must be found 



588 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

with the sins of the times. I have seldom heard 
a discourse or lecture, from infidels of the present 
day, where they have not found fault with all 
those writings in w^hich sin and immorality are de- 
nounced in plain scriptural language. There are, 
among our modern Liberal Christians, many who 
seem shocked at the idea that Eugene Sue, for in- 
stance, should have dared to satirize Popery, or that 
Guinet, or Michelet, should presume to denounce 
Jesuitism or warn mankind against giving it any en- 
couragement amongst them. The argument used by 
these Liberal Christians or philosophers — for they 
are all philosophers, every one of them — is this; if 
evangelical Christians should succeed in suppressing 
Popery, we philosophic, and Liberal Christians, shall be 
their next victims ; ergo, Eugene Sue, Michelet, Gui- 
net, and all who- write against Popery, deserve no 
encouragement from us. Admirable logicians, these 
Liberal Christians! Profound and deep historians, 
these modern philosophers I Evangelical Christians 
have never persecuted Liberal Christicms. I would 
challenge them to produce an instance where they 
have ever acted upon the offensive. Let them an- 
alyze the creed of evangelical Christians ; let them 
dissect it ; let them break it up, word by word, and cut 
each w^ord into the most minute fractions ; and if they 
can show me, among those words or fractions, a soli- 
tary particle, or an isolated idea, which teaches them 
to persecute any man on account of his religious opin- 
ions, I will acknowledge that Liberal Christians arc 
right in preferring the ascendancy of Popery to that of 
evangelical Christianity. But how is it in the Popish 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 589 

creed ? Let these Liberal Christians turn back to the 
pages of history, and they will find that the creed and 
canons of Popery, as well as the decretals of its 
Church, all teach that Liberal Christians are to be dealt 
with by civil law, and that by civil law is to be under- 
stood the Inquisitorial laiv, which consigns every one 
of them to the sword, fire, and faggot. Do these gen- 
tlemen recollect the fate of Arius and his followers ? 
Do they forget that the disciples of Arius were all 
Liberal Christians^ and numbered, at one time, a vast 
and large portion of those who professed any belief 
in the doctrines of Christ, either as God or man ? 
Pause, gentlemen, I entreat of you, — recollect that the 
reason why Papists are silent in relation to your doc- 
trines, is simply this : they look upon you as damned, 
beyond a possibility of salvation. They place you 
and the Jews on the same level, and consider both as 
blasphemers of the name of Christ, and as altogether 
beneath the notice of all men who profess the Chris- 
tian religion in any form whatever ; and rely upon it, 
when I assure you, that I myself, who have been a 
Popish priest, have studied the doctrines of that 
Church to little purpose, if you are not the very first 
whom Papists will destroy, and whose property they 
will confiscate to the use of their Infallible Churchy 
should they ever have the power to do so. 

It is a question with me, whether many of the 
lecturers of the present day, in their unqualified anath- 
emas against modern literature and general reading, 
are not doing more harm than good. Assuredly they 
are injuring, more or less, the cause of liberty, and 
giving all the advantages they possess, to arbitrary' 



500 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

power; especially to the factious, despotic, and violent 
power of the tyrant court of E.onie. Those lecturers 
who denounce the writings of Eugene Sue, Guinet, 
and others, against the Popish Church, are bringing 
upon this country — unconsciously, I believe — all the 
evils of foreign tyranny, without any consolation. 
They are helping to destroy themselves, and must be 
destroyed in time by a superior power. Charity 
obliges me to suppose these lecturers sincere, and if 
they were equally discreet, might be useful aux- 
iliaries in promoting the moral and political interests 
of our country. They are the instruments of cool- 
headed, dispassionate politicians, who see nothing, 
and care to see nothing, but their own private in- 
terests. 

Besides all this, these declaimers against modern 
literature and general reading are injuring the cause 
of science. He who from his pulpit, or in a lyceum 
hall, disapproves of the writings of Eugene Sue 
against Popish domination, miCrely because he relates 
many facts and circumstances which are not proper to 
. be seen or read by some of his hearers, — aims his 
" blows at many of the noblest sciences which God has 
permitted man to study, and for reasons which could 
scarcely be satisfactory to a child, viz : because " some 
passages in his writings are rather indelicate." This 
is certainly as strong a reason as Dr. Sangi'ado, of 
Quixotic notoriety, gave to his patient, when asked 
why he did not prescribe cold water ; " I have," said 
the Doctor, " already prescribed hot water." The rea- 
son given for not reading Eugene Sue may apply 
with equal force against the study of surgery ; and I 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 591 

should not be in the least surprised, if before long 
Bome of those gentlemen denounced and forbade the 
study of the noble and almost heavenly science of 
anatomy. Assuredly, beautiful, symmetrical, and 
lovely as the human frame is externally, it presents to 
the human eye, when dissected and exposed, in its 
native and naked proportions, no very pleasing object 
to contemplate. But does it follow that the science of 
anatomy should not be studied ? Does it follow that 
works upon that science should not be read ? Certain- 
ly not; and he who would contend for the contrary 
w^ould be well suited by assigning to him an abode in 
some lunatic asylum. 

I admit that there are some passages in the WTitings 
of Eugene Sue, Guinet, and others, against Popery, 
that seem rather indelicate. But is that a reason 
why the moral anatomy and structure of the body 
Papal should not be dissected ? ' The external body of 
Poper^, like the human body, may be fair to the eye, 
lovely to the senses, and beautiful to the imagination ; 
but like the human body, it has its deformities, and 
I see no reason why its defects should not be anato- 
mized, studied, and exposed, if necessary to the moral 
welfare of the human family. How can the evils of 
Popery be known, unless they are exposed to public 
view, and seen by those who are v^ompetent to judge 
of their evil tendencies ? And who are more compe- 
tent to form a correct estimate of their nature and 
character, than such men as Eugene Sue, Guinet, 
and others, who have studied Popery ? Guinet and 
Michelet are now living. They are both Roman 



592 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Catholics by birth and education. They understand 
the doctrines of Popery thoroughly. It is idle — it is 
worse than idle — for American Protestant writers "to 
attempt to prevent the circulation of Michelet's works, 
or those of Eugene Sue, in the United States. But it 
will be said, and it is said, that there is much romance 
about them, and that many passages are to be found, 
in Guinet especially, savoring strongly of infidelity. 
Admitting even this to be the case, it does not follow, 
by any means, that the enemies of Popery, which 
some Protestant journals and lecturers pretend to be, 
should reject and censure the many and undeniable 
truths which they contain on the subject of Popery. 
The fact is — and I regret that it is so — many of 
the journals which come out with flaming notices of 
their determination to stand by the Protestant religion, 
and oppose the introduction of Popery into this 
country, are not always sincere in their professions. 
Many of them are theorists. I may add here, en 
passant^ that few of those " heroes of discussion 
meetings," and editors of newspapers, are at all 
qualified for the task which they undertake. It is, 
however, a source of consolation to me, that there 
are some public lecturers and editors of Protestant 
newspapers, who are sincere and disinterested in their 
opposition to Popery ; who see its destructive fruits 
now springing up in the fairest fields of our Republic ; 
who know that Popery is corrupt in itself, that corrup- 
tion of mind and morals is the natural result to be 
expected from its prevalence amongst our people 
These worthy men and well-informed editors of many 
of our presses, are determined, cost what it will, that 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 593 

Popery shall be fully understood in this country ; that 
it shall no longer be hid in a corner, and that those 
Jesuit wolves who profess it shall no longer be permit- 
ted to appear in sheep's clothing. 

Among the presses which now boldly stand forth 
in defence of the Protestant religion and the civil 
rights of man, I am happy to enumerate the Boston 
Recorder, the Olive Branch, and others, among the 
various presses in the city of Boston. There are also 
many among the political presses in our country, which 
are doing good service to the cause of Protestantism 
and the civil rights of man. J. T. Buckingham, 
of the Boston Courier, has generously and disinter- 
estedly thrown himself and his fine talents between 
the intrigues of Papists and their designs upon our 
institutions, and the civil rights of his countrymen. 
These presses have not blushed to quote largely from 
Eugene Sue ; they have not tried to hide from their 
readers, nor prevented them from reading, the faith- 
ful expose which Eugene Sue, Guinet, La Manais, 
Michelet, and others, have given of the iniquities 
and treasonable designs of Popish priests and Jesuits 
against Protestant governments and the civil rights of 
man. These presses have not put their hands to the 
plow and looked back. They love their God and 
their country too well to crouch before the puerilities 
— as the learned Bishop Eastburn of Boston expresses 
it — or the treasonable designs of Jesuits. The reader 
will here indulge me, and I trust the editors of the 
Boston Recorder will pardon me, for quoting largely 
from their paper of January 15th, 1846. 

" M. Pascal, a devoted member of the Romish 



nrs^ AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Church, has set forth in his provincial letters the opin- 
''ons of several distinguished Jesuits, as to the duty ol 
loving God, and especially in answer to the question, 
' When and at what time is a man obliged to have 
an actual love or affection for God ? ' One Jesuit, 
Saurez, says, ' It is enough if we love him a little 
before we die, without fixing any time.' Another, 
Vasquez, says that * it is enough to love him at the 
point of death.' We marvel at such answers. But 
this is Jesuitism seeking to relieve itself of the painful 
obligation of loving God. No order of men, — no 
society that ever existed, has been so universally ex- 
ecrated as that of the Jesuits. Everywhere intriguing^ 
plotting^ and dangerous^ they have been everywhere 
dreaded, hated, and opposed. And not by Protestants 
alone. The society of Jesuits has been at different 
periods expelled from all the States of Europe ; and 
last of all, France has denounced and rejected it. 
The order, as every one knows, began with Loyola, 
in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and was 
intended as a spiritual crusade against heresy ; the 
particular heresy aimed at being the Reformation,. 
under Luther, who was contemporary with Loyola. 
In 1773, the institution of the Jesuits was suppressed 
by a bull of Clement XIV. They were accused of 
* too gi*eat avidity of terrestrial goods,' of ' criminal 
plots,' of having in their favor only the exterior of 
regularity, disgraced in their maxims, and to render 
themselves more powerful, given up to commerce, 
stock-jobbing, and politics.' 

" But the time came when Rome needed the arms 
of the Jesuits, and their society was re-established in 



POnSH NUNNERIES. 595 

1814. The Romish Church still defends the Jesuits, 
and stands before the world as their accomplice." The 
Recorder continues, and indirectly severely censures 
those presses and those timid and irresolute editors who 
seem to think that they cannot conscientiously read, 
or permit tneir readers to receive into their houses, 
the writings of Eugene Sue or Michelet, against the 
degrading and traitorous doctrines of Popery. 

" The attempt of the Jesuits," continues the piOus 
and talented editor of the Recorder, " to get the control 
of education in France, aroused some powerful spirits, 
among whom the most distinguished were Michelet 
and Guinet, Professors in the College of France. 
These men are Catholics, but too excellent and con- 
scientious to receive the appellation in its bad sense. 
They are high authority, and we quote a few of their 
opinions, publicly uttered in college lectures within 
the last year or two." What think you of the above 
language, you editors of the would-be evangelical 
Protestant presses ? — you who have pledged your 
sacred honor and fortunes to stand by the Church 
and the Gospel of Christ, and still censure Michelet, 
Guinet, and even my own humble efforts to oppose 
the spread of Popery among mankind. " Michelet," 
continues the Recorder, " calls the spirit of Jesuits 
the spirit of intrigue — of holy detraction. God give 
us, he says, political tyranny, military tyranny, and all 
other tyrannies, ten times over, rather than that such a 
police — that of the Jesuits — should sully our France." 
Will the reader permit me to add my petition to this, 
and will he join me in beseeching the Throne of 
Grace to receive it graciously ? God give us, Arner- 



596 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

lean citizens, political tyranny, military tyranny, and 
all other tyrannies, ten times over, rather than that 
Jesuitism should disfigure the fair face of our beati- 
ful Republic. The Recorder continues his observa- 
tions on the writings of Michelet. " He (Micholet) 
challenges men to study, and tells them that at the 
end of ten years they will find in the history of Jes- 
uits but one meaning — the death of liberty ^ " This 
bold lecturer," (Michelet) continues the Recorder still, 
" abounds in passages like the following : ' What is 
the nature of the Jesuit? He has none; he is fit for 
everything. The Jesuits are a formidable machine 
for war, invented for the most vile combat in the 
sixteenth century. The simple and natural means 
which have generally succeeded with the Jesuits is 
to catch wild birds by means of tame ones.'' " " I 
speak," says Michelet, " of Jesuitesses, polished and 
gentle, adroit and charming, who always, going before 
the Jesuits, put everywhere oil and honey, smoothing 
the way." How true this is ; and is it not strange, be- 
yond account, that Americans cannot see it? When 
Jesuits first came into Boston, they seni before them 
Jesuitesses, young, polished, gentle, and charming. 
These tame Popish birds were not long amongst us, 
when they caught whole flocks of our wild Yankee 
birds, and are now catching them in almost every 
State in the Union. But the Yankee, with all his 
cutenesSj cleverness, and supposed cunning-, will be 
caught. He is no match for the Jesuit. " The 
Jesuits," says Michelet, again, "have employed the 
instrument of which* Jerome speaks — poor little 
women, all covered with sins." He alludes to the 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



597 



Sisters of Charity, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, 
the Mother Abbesses, &c., all which are directed and 
governed by the Jesuits. 

Was there ever a truer picture of the operations of 
Jesuits than this ? And the Americans who cannot 
see its truth and fidelity, must be blinder than the 
bats which flutter in the caves and caverns of their 
mountains. Had we not, the other day, on Mount 
Benedict, in the vicinity of Boston, the capital of 
New England, some of those poor little women^ cov- 
ered with sins — meek, and gentle, and angelic-looking 
little beings? Sweet little innocents! They had a 
nunnery there, too. They had a fashionable school 
attached to it. And our Protestant Jonathans — poor 
dolts — sent their daughters to these poor little women 
— these Sisters of Charity — to be educated in the 
principles of Christianity! True it is that none are 
so blind as those who will not see. 

The reader will bear with me in quoting a few 
more passages, which the Boston Recorder selects 
from the writings of Guinet, on the subject of Jesuit- 
ism. " The . nations which are sickest in Europe, 
those which have least credit and authority, are those 
in which the society of Jesuits has its hearth. The 
mission of Jesuitism, in the sixteenth century, w^as to 
destroy the Reformation ; the mission of Jesuitism, in 
the nineteenth century, is to destroy the Revolution, 
which supposes, includes, and envelopes, the Reforma- 
tion. What cannot fail to strike you, is the rapidity 
with which this society has degenerated. Where 
shall we find any thing like it in any other order? 
The public voice has been raised against it from its 



598 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

very cradle. Already the society was driven out from 
a part of Spain in 1555, from the Low Countries and 
Portugal in 1578, from all France in 1594, from 
Venice in 1606, from the Kingdom of Naples in 
1622. I speak only of Catholic countries. We may 
add, that France condemned the Jesuits -in 1762, and 
actually drove them from the kingdom, and that she 
has since repeated her sentence of reprobation in 
1845." 

•' Now let it be considered," says the Recorder — 
and I look upon that venerable journal, and its editors, 
as high authority — " that these very Jesuits, dreaded 
and loathed, in the old countries, looked upon as the 
ofFscouring of all things, the dregs even of Catholic 
states, are coming to this country by hundreds, [The 
Recorder might have said by hundreds of thousands] 
seeking here a field for their honid operations, deter- 
mined to regain all and more than they have lost at 
home. It is well understood that the Catholic officials 
who profane our soil, are of the Jesuit order, — despe- 
rate men, ' fit for everything,' whose very breath is the 
* death of liberty.' Their mission is to deceive and 
victimize the American people. The people, there- 
fore, ought to be aw^are of their character and opera- 
tions. 

" Some will say," continues the Recorder, farther, 
" it is not so, — there is no danger — these priests are 
a very harmless people. In this provoking stupidity 
lies our danger. Before they get their eyes open, the 
language of Michelet will be applicable. ' Are these 
Jesuits ? A man asks this question, whose wife they 
already govern by a confessor of their own — the wife 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 599 

the house, table, hearth, bed. To-morrow they will 
have her child.' There is little reason to suppose that 
Jesuits will be forcibly expelled from this country. 
So much the greater is the necessity that they should 
be watched, exposed, and resisted. Their movements 
here, are of special moment to Americans. We are 
called upon to watch around the ' altar of our lib- 
erty.' The Jesuits and the Pope, would rejoice to 
see us directing our attention to Italy, — to draw our 
attention there, even while they are choosing and 
fortifying their position here. Mr. Hogan may be 
right in suggesting that this is their ' plot.' If so, 
while they are plotting, let the Americans be adopt- 
ing vigorous means of self-protection — such means 
especially, as religion and education can best furnish." 

Thus speaks that truly evangelical and independent 
press, the Boston Recorder, of Jesuitism, and the 
writings of Sue, Michelet, and Guinet. And it is to 
me a source of consolation and cheering encourage- 
ment, to find that it does not disapprove of my own 
humble efforts upon the same subject, nor of any of 
those authorities which I have called to my aid. 

I fully agree with the Recorder, that education — 
biblical education — is the best means and defence 
we can make against the intrigues of Jesuitism in this 
country. Our sole and only hope of success against 
them, is the general diffusion of education, and that 
education must be of a scriptural character. Until 
the people can read, they cannot think ; and until they 
can think, they cannot reason, nor consequently dis- 
tinguish between error and truth. A vast number of 

the citizens of this country are foreigners, from Pop- 
26 



600 



AURICULAR CONFJJSiSlON AND 



ish countries, who have no edacaiion but such as they 
received from their priests ; and the history of the 
world informs us of the wretched character of thai 
instruction which they have received from that source. 
We all can see the condition of the poor Irish, who, 
for centuries back, have been walking by the light of 
some ' magic lantern, held by their priests.' We can 
see how prevalent the influence of Popish priests has 
been, in the education — or rather want of education 
of the Irish, — by referring to a Report of Commis- 
sioners appointed to take the census of Great Britain 
and Ireland in 1841. I here quote from the London 
Quarterly Review for June, 1845. " On the present 
slate of Irish education, and its previous progress, the 
Commissioners have taken great pains to collect and 
communicate information, of which the result is, that 
the diminution of ignorants, that is, of persons unable 
to read and write, is, during the last fifty years, from 
forty-eight to thirty-five per cent, of males, and from 
sixty to forty-five per cent, of females." What must 
have been the condition of this poor people previous 
to the last fifty years, when they were educated exclu- 
sively by bishops, priests, monks, and nuns ? And 
how grateful should they feel to the Protestants of 
Great Britain and elsewhere for the great diminution 
which has since taken place in the number of males 
and females who could then neither read nor write. It is 
creditable to government — the Protestant government 
of Great Britain — that out of the number of Irish, 
which are now in the military service of Great Brit- 
ain, sixty per cent, of those between the ages of six- 
teen and twenty-five can both read and write. How 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 001 

18 this to be accounted for ? Popish priests have 
nothing to do with the education of the children of 
those who are in the service of Great Britain. They 
are indebted to Protestant teachers, and Protestant offi- 
cers, for the blessings of education which they enjoy. 
How are the people educated in Popish France ? We 
can learn from the lectures of Michelet, Professor of 
Literature in the College of France ; it is wretched 
in the extreme. But some of our sympathizers and 
mawkish journalists may question the authority of 
the gentleman. I would refer them to other authority 
M. Boulay tells us that more than half the population 
of France can neither read nor write. He assures us 
this is a fixed fact — and he is no contemptible author- 
ity. What does Bishop Fenwick's Corporal Trim 
think of this ? He assured us, the other day, on his 
honor and consistency^ that the inhabitants of Catholic 
countries were the best educated people in the world. 
Ah ! Corporal, thou shalt never die while imposture 
and Popery live in the United States. Let us com- 
pare the condition of the Iri«h, who are educated by 
Popish priests and Jesuits, with that of Americans, 
who have received their education from Protestant 
teachers, and we shall see — as the London Quarterly 
Keview expresses it — in strong contrast, the effect of 
an almost total, and a very partial Papal eclipse. 
Taking the whites — in America — as the analogous 
population, we find that persons above the age of 
twenty years, who can neither read nor write, are not 
quite four per cent. (3.87.) To make this, however, a 
fair subject of comparison, we must consider that the 
numbers under twenty are not half the whites, (1.38,) 



602 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

SO that we mus't reckon the ignorants to be eight pej 
cent, of the whole. How different this from the forty 
per cent, of the Irish Papists, and the fifty or sixty 
per cent, of the French Papists, all of whom are edu- 
cated by Jesuits and Papists ! What becomes here, 
of Corporal Brownson's assertion, that "the people 
are better educated, in general, in Popish than Protest- 
ant countries " ? The fact is, my friend Brownson, 
you had better shut up shop; you are a man of no 
bottom ; you possess no solid and useful information ; 
and easily humbugged, as you and your brethren the 
Jesuits think the American people to be, no man can 
retain long among them, the character of a learned 
and honest man, if he have not some solid bottom of 
his own to stand upon. It is a bold attempt on the 
part of Jesuits, to try to persuade the American 
people, by means of their agent Brownson, that the 
mass of Papists are better educated than Protestants. 
But, as the learned Dr. South expresses it, "there is, in 
the effort to do what is glaringly false, such a mixture 
of the fool, as quite spoils the project of the knave." 
And I am much mistaken if the knavish Jesuits who 
infest this country, do not soon find that the observa- 
tion of Dr. South is correct. 

Jesuits and their agents in the United States, have 
taken and are now taking, great pains to persuade 
our Protestant citizens, that Papists are not only better 
educated than Protestants, but better provided for 
in every other respect. They have always charged 
Protestants with neglecting the poor, and over-work- 
ing them in every department of labor. Some of the 
Puseyite philosophers of the present day, unite with 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



603 



Jesuits in urging this charge against Protestants. 
This is peculiarly worthy of the attention of the 
Americans, and shows as clearly as any other circum- 
stance can, the extent and depth of Jesuit intrigue 
amongst us. The great mass of the people, in every 
country, is composed of the laboring classes, or, as we 
term them, operatives. And Jesuits know full well that 
if they can persuade the great body of Americans, 
that Popery gives more encouragement to labor, and 
requires less of it for a given price, than those who 
profess Protestantism, it is an important point gained; 
in truth, if this be admitted, — if the Popish Church 
gives more encouragement and better pay to laborers, 
than the Protestant Church, I, for one, would not and 
could not withhold from her my full and hearty com- 
mendation thus far. If it be true, — as that great 
Idealist and Puseyite, Mr. Ward, of England, con- 
tends, — that the poor and neglected and oppressed, 
in those countries where Protestant government pre- 
vails, are much better provided for under Popish gov- 
ernments, the fact ought to be well understood, and in 
place of wishing to overthrow these governments and 
prevent the farther growth of Popery, we should 
pause, and look seriously into the question. 

But is it true that labor is more encouraged and 
better paid, under Catholic than Protestant govern- 
ments ? Is it true that operatives — say for instance 
those who work in factories — are more humanely 
dealt with, better paid, and not required to work as 
many hours, under Popish as under Protestant gov- 
ernments ? I call the attention of American Protest- 
ants to this question. It is one of vital importance. 



604 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

Both Puseyites and Jesuits allege this as positive 
We have them here on the platform of unequivocad 
allegation of fact. " We have them on the hip." I 
am now willing to grapple with Jesuits and Puseyites 
upon this question. It cannot be evaded by them. It 
must be yes or no. Jesuit sophistry can avail them 
nothing, and if I can show our operatives, and laborers 
in our factories, that those Jesuits and Puseyites who 
are now overspreading our Republic, are trying to de- 
ceive them and reduce them to farther hardships, I trust 
they will rise as a body, men, women, children, and all, 
and hoot them from our shores. It is wrong to deceive 
any one ; and no honest man or true Christian will do 
so ; but it is cruel to deceive the poor laborer or opera- 
tive, w^ho lives by the sweat of his brow. 

If the reader will accompany me across the Atlan- 
tic, I will show him the condition of the operatives 
in some of those countries where the government is 
Popish^ and where the religion of the people is that 
of Jesuits and priests. Let us visit France, a Catho- 
lic country. Let us examine a Report made by M. 
Delambre, the head of the department of Manufac- 
tures, in the office of the Minister of Commerce, 
in 1838. From that Report it appears, that the actual 
work of children, in factories, is never less than twelve 
hours, and extends from that minhnum amount, to 
fourteen hours, in the twenty-four. It is also stated 
by him, that in the chief manufactories, it is not un- 
usual with them to work all Saturday night and 
Sunday morning. "So much for Popish clemency and 
Jesuit lenity toHhe poor operative. Let us cross over 
the Channel to England, a Protestant government and 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 605 

a Protestant country. How is it with operatives and 
children in factories there ? I refer the reader, for an 
answer, to Horner on the Employment of Cliildren in 
Factories, page 28. " In England, under a Protestant 
government, no child under thirteen can be employed 
for more than eight hours a day ; nor can any young 
person, just emerged from childhood, be employed 
more than twelve hours a day." On Saturday the 
hours of work were only nine, when Mr. Horner 
wrote, and I am informed by the London Quarterly 
Review, of January, 1845, to which I am indebted for 
much of the information which I here give on the 
subject of factory laborers,' — that a new Act of Parlia- 
ment, fixing the maximum of labor, for children, at 
six and a half hours per day, has recently been passed. 
What becomes, now, of the assertions of Puseyites ' 
and Jesuits on the subject of Popish charity and 
humanity to the poor ? The truth is, that I may chal- 
lenge them to show me mankind, in any condition or 
any situation, or any clime or country, under Catholic 
or Protestant government, where they are not more op- 
pressed, more degraded, more abused, and more igno- 
rant under Catholic than Protestant governments. How 
then can it be, with this fact before their eyes, that Amer- 
icans — Protestant American? — give any countenance 
to Popery and Jesuits in the United States ? or how 
can we account for the still more extraordinary fact, 
that one of the most learned Christian Associations 
that ever have been established in this country — The 
Christian Leagnie — does not devote its whole and 
undivided energies to the removal of Jesuits and 
Jesuitism from amongst us. I cannot account for the 



606 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

fact. I have conversed with a learned member of this 
Association, a gentleman of distinguished talents and 
deserved popularity. I asked him why the Associa- 
tion did not spread its forces, extend its lines, and 
devote its funds of intellect, as well as of money, ex- 
clusively to the removal of Jesuitism from our happy 
country. His answer was, " we do not deem it pru- 
dent to do so ; we cannot fail to kill Jesuitism in Italy, 
and there will be an end of it." 

Gentlemen of the Christian League ! I once before 
entreated you to withdraw your troops from Italy. 
You can do no good in that country. But suppose 
you did kill Popery in Italy — suppose that Jesuitism 
was dead and buried in that ill-fated country — I tell 
you that it will rise in this, and that in the shape of a 
tremendous, unformed spectre, in a far more terrific 
guise than ever before overpowered the imagination 
of man. I may not live to see it ; many of you may 
not live to witness it ; but that does not alter the truth 
of my prediction. 

I have deviated far and wide from the point for 
which I set out at the commencement of this book. 
As usual, I have paid no attention to order, literary 
style, or argumentative consecutiveness. Let this, how- 
ever, not be attributed to any want, on my part, of due 
respect for the good opinion of my readers. My sole 
object in writing this book was to state facts, a knowl- 
edge of which I deemed necessary and useful to my 
fellow citizens; and as I knew full well that it was 
perfectly immaterial to the majority of them, how or 
in what manner these facts were stated, provided they 
were true, I have given them at random, just as they 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 607 

occurred to me — currente calamo. Besides this, 1 am 
pretty much of the opinion of Swift, and value not 
the rules of art as high as others do : 

" Nature, I thought, performed too mean a part, 
Forming her movements to the rules of art." 

I will now return to the subject of auricular confes- 
sion, and the gross immorality practised by priests in 
the Popish confessionals. Bat I must say, as I have 
often done before, that it is impossible to prove to the 
Protestant inhabitants of the United States all, or even 
many of the particulars of those various accusations 
'vhich I have advanced against Popish bishops and 
priests. The system of confession itself, and the 
manner in which it is made, render the thing impos- 
sible. No one can understand the doctrine of Popish 
confession, except those who have been Popish priests, 
and have acted themselves in the capacity of confes- 
sors. The man who has not been a Free Mason, for 
instance, may accuse that ancient society of Free and 
Accepted Masons of sanctioning, or even perpetrating 
crimes, but all his accusations will go for nothing, if he 
has not been a Mason himself, for the very obvious 
reason that he knows nothing, and could know nothing 
of Masonry, from his own knowledge ; and hence it 
is that we find Jesuit priests and Popish presses turn- 
ing into ridicule, and not without some cause, many 
Protestant writers and Protestant newspapers for ac- 
cusing them of things they know nothing at all about. 
Here I have had the advantage of Popish priests and 
Popish presses, and henc^ it probably is that my books 
against Popery have haci such extensive circulation, 
26* 



608 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

and have silenced, as it were by magic, almost every 
Roman Catholic Press in the United States. And let 
it not be deemed vanity in me, should I recommend 
to those editors who have established presses with the 
avowed intention of exposing Popery, to be cautious 
in their charges against the Papists, for one unfounded 
charge is apt to destroy the weight of a thousand 
which may be true; and I am sorry to see that many 
such charges are made by pious men, and even by 
learned men on other subjects, but who seem far in 
advance of their prudence. No man can detect a 
flaw in an argument sooner than a Jesuit, and no 
press can turn it into more bitter ridicule than a Jesuit 
press. No matter who the reputed editor of the press 
may be, every article in it is revised and corrected by a 
Jesuit bishop or his deputy, before it meets the public 
eye; and hence, perhaps, arises much of the popularity 
of my books. I have never advanced a charge against 
Jesuits or Popish priests, which I did not know to be 
true ; I have never accused them, as a body, of being 
guilty of a crime in the confessional, which I did not 
know, of my own knowledge, to be undeniably tnae ; 
and to do them justice, they have never denied it. 

That the Romish confessionals are sinks of unpar- 
alleled corruption, seduction, and the most revolting 
impurities, is but too well understood in Papal coun- 
tries. Michelet understands it in France, so does 
Eugene Sue ; but still far better does John Ronge 
understand it in Switzerland, because he has been, but 
the other day, a Roman Catholic priest himself. The 
Catholic priests in almost all Germany undei*stand 
this, and seem now determined, through their fearless 



POPISH NUNNERIE.^. 601) 

champion Ronge, to lay before the view of mankind 
the wicked impurities practised in the Romish confes- 
sional ; and indeed it is a matter of astonishment that 
any people should sanction amongst them the practice 
of sending young females to confession to priests 
who are taught and commanded by their church to 
question them on subjects so indelicate and gross that 
of necessity impure thoughts must arise in their young 
minds. I can of my own knowledge say, that if it 
had been the intention of any body of men to corrupt 
the morals of the human race, to habituate the chil- 
dren of both sexes to impurity, filth and profligacy, it 
would be impossible to devise a scheme more com- 
pletely adapted to produce that effect than the practice 
of confessing to priests, and the establishment of 
Popish nunneries amongst them. The common sense- 
of mankind, the ordinary feelings of morality, would 
have made it impossible to carry into effect such a 
project, unless it had assumed the mask of a religious 
duty to God. 

It is said in the United States that if priests were so 
immoral as I have represented them to be, and in the 
habit of taking such liberty with females at the con- 
fessional as I have accused them of, that virtuous fe- 
males — and there must be some such among Roman 
Catholics — would not continue long to go to confes- 
sion to those priests who take indelicate liberties with 
them. One would suppose that such females would 
leave the church altogether. How nttle — I repeat it 
for the hundredth time — do Americans know of the 
wheels within wheels in the great machine of Popery I 
Guilty priests who have made attempts to seduce vir- 



610 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

t'joiis females at the confessional, and found that they 
could not succeed, understand how to manage their 
case well. The church, in her infallible w^isdom, has 
made provision for such events. It is well knc^-n in 
Europe, and let it be henceforward known m the 
United States, that there are two distinct and sep- 
arate orders of priests — seculars and reg-ulars. The 
secular order is composed chiefly of parish priests and 
their curates, w^hose duty it is to hear the confessions 
of their parishoners. The order of regulars is com- 
Dosed of friars, who are sub-divided into several minor 
orders, and who have no parochial duties to discharge, 
unless especially deputed to do so by the Bishop or 
his deputy of the diocese in vv'hich they may be lo- 
cated. It is so arranged by the sectdar priests, that 
whenever they fail in seducing Xheir penitents, and are 
detected by them, that one of these friars shall imme- 
diately be at hand to hear the confessions of all such 
females, and forgive them their sins on condition that 
they shall never reveal to mortal being' the thoughtless 
peccadillo of their parish priest, luho for the moment 
forgot himself and whose tears of repentance noio 
moisten the ground on which he ivalks I 

Let me make this more plain by supposing a case 
or two, by way of illustration. Suppose the Popish 
bishop of New York were a young, athletic, amorous 
man ; suppose he fixed his eye upon a young married 
woman, or some fascinating lady of his flock — the 
supposition is a very wild one, I admit — suppose he 
try to seduce one or either at the confessional, and she 
reject his criminal overtures, — how would his Popish 
lordship act on this occasion ? He alwavs has at 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 611 

his elbow some friar, and that friar a foreigner, whom 
he directs to go, instanter, and hear the confession 
of those ladies. The friar knows his duty too well 
to disobey the orders of the Pope's viceroy in New 
York, and the whole affair is hushed up, perfectly to 
the satisfaction of the ladies, who are absolved from 
their sins, and entirely to that of his lordship^ who 
Knows full well that the affair will never be heard of 
again. This friar is a sort of spiritual rover, and as 
soon as he has done his business in New York, is 
despatched to Boston, or elsewhere, until he visits per- 
haps every diocese in the Union. He then returns 
home to Rome, never to visit this country again. 
Another is sent in his place, and thus the work of 
seduction and immorality goes on, from year to year, 
in Popish confessionals, and almost under our very 
eyes^ without our knowledge, while the guilty mon- 
sters, priests and bishops, are rioting at our hospitable 
tables, feasting upon our richest viands, and sipping 
our oldest wines. Things are so arranged in the 
Popish church, that the crimes of the prints in or out 
of the confessional, are seldom known to the great 
mass of the people. Such are the means adopted by 
the church of Rome to cloak and conceal from the 
public eye the profligacies of her priests and bishops, 
that it is almost impossible to detect these culprits and 
bring them to legal punishment. If, for instance, a 
priest commit a ciime in Boston, which the repre- 
sentative of the Popish church in that city thinks 
may, by possibility, come to light, and throw any 
discredit upon the church, or diminish his own per- 
sonal influence in that city, funds are placed in his 



612 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

hands by the church, to meet the expenses of remov- 
ing Mm to any part of the world he chooses, and the 
guilty priest needs only what is technically called an 
exeat^ to insure him a warm reception from any 
Popish bishop in the universe. It is a general prac- 
tice of the bishops in the Romish church, to exchange 
guilty priests with each other ; they are very punctual 
in reciprocating such favors. When nuns or Roman 
Catholic females commit crimes in convents, which 
can no longer be concealed, the holy and infallihle 
church provides means for their instant removal to a 
different diocese. But should they still persevere in 
their iniquities, and should it be found impossible to 
prevent further illicit intercourse between them and 
their confessors, means are provided to send them to 
some foreign country. We have now several foreign 
nuns in the United States. By foreign nuns I do not 
mean foreigners who became nuns in this country. I 
mean those who became nuns in foreign countries, 
and who have been sent amongst us as such, for the 
purpose of educating our children, and educating them 
in the doctrines of their pure relig-on. And I posi- 
tively assert, to the best of my own belief, and partly 
of my own personal knowledge, that there is not to be 
found among them an individual, much of whose pre- 
vious life has not been spent in criminal intercourse 
and illicit connexion with their confessors and priests. 
This is no random assertion of mine. I make the 
allegation with shame and sorrow, but the cause of 
truth demands it; and justice to my fellow citizens 
who are in the habit of sending their children to 
school to these consummate hypocrites, renders it 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 613 

imperative upon me that I should declare the truth, 
however unpalatable it may be. 

Will the reader indulge me, while I quote a passage 
or two from the London Quarterly Review, for June, 
1844? The editors of that periodical are gentlemen 
of great respectability, and men of well-established 
veracity, whose statements confirm some of my asser- 
tions. " The heads of the Church themselves, admit 
the liability of abuse through the confessional, and fre- 
quent exhortations are published, desiring all women, 
who have improper solicitatiGns made to them there, 
to denounce the confessor ; but a moment's consider- 
ation will show the inutility of this exhortation ; and 
one instance, w^hich we shall give, must suffice for all. 
An Italian gentleman of our acquaintance, removed 
■^^dth his family, from the place of his nativity, to a 
town in another State ; soon after their arrival the 
wife went to the confessional, in the parish church, 
where improper proposals were made to her ; she ran 
home and acquainted her husband ; he made a formal 
complaint to the proper authorities, in her name ; a 
day was appointed for the examination of the charge; 
and when the time arrived, the lady naturally declined 
to appear. It is obvious that just in proportion as the 
person offended, is delicate, and the offence gross, there 
will be the greater difficulty in inducing the complain- 
ant to come forward." The truth of this is obvious to 
all, and here lies one great security against detecting ^ 
licentious and criminal priest. Were it not for this, 
our citizens w^ould hoot at them as they walked our 
streets. Were it not for this. Popish priests and 
confessors would never be admitted into their houses, 



614 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

or occupy a seat at the table of any decent or virtu- 
ous family. I know so well, of my own knowledge, 
the nature of those questions and solicitations, that 
are offered by Popish priests to women in the con- 
fessional, that I can scarcely believe any woman 
could be found, who would appear in the presence 
of men, or before any tribunal, civil or ecclesiastical, 
and repeat the language by which her ears have been 
insulted. 

Popish priests understand human nature well; they 
know the timid and shrinking disposition of a virtu- 
ous woman. They feel that they are safe from public 
prosecution, so. long as their solicitations and criminal 
overtures are known only to women of reputation. If 
it were not for this, our criminal courts could not con- 
tain this number of those reverend wretches, among 
Popish priests, who should appear before our criminal 
tribunals. Even Roman Catholic laymen, of rank 
and intelligence, have no idea of the enormities com- 
mitted by their priests. Effectual means are taken, by 
the Church of Rome, to conceal their enormities from 
the public eye. The extent of immorality is so great 
in Catholic countries, in Germany, Franqe, and, sub 
rosa, in Ireland, that it is considered an evidence of 
prudence, in a priest, to keep a mistress, rather than 
be a public scandal. It is thought by the Irish that 
their priests are peculiarly chaste and virtuous ; they 
boast of this. I know the Irish priests as well as any 
other man living; I have lived among them; I was 
one of them ; I acted as a confessor among them, and 
held in that capacity a higher position than any of 
my age in the country ; and I solemnly declare, tha 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 615 

I never knew a chaste man among them. Every 
parish priest that ever I knew in Ireland, kept a mis- 
tress whom he called a housekeeper, or some female 
whose duty or whose apparent business it seemed to 
be, to superintend his wardrobe or some such thing; 
but such is the credulity of the poor Irish, and such 
their idolatrous veneration for their priests, that I 
really believe, if they detected one of them in flagran- 
ti crimine, they would not credit the testimony of their 
own senses. It occurs, sometimes, — though very sel- 
dom, — that one of those Irish priests is detected ; the 
punishment, in that case, is simply his removal to 
another parish. I have known immoralities committed 
in the houses of Irish parish priests, so heinous that 
they cannot be put to paper; and yet the poor Irish 
Catholics, who seem fated to be the victims of every 
species of delusion and imposture, look upon their 
priests as perfect models of piety ; and consider their 
agent, Daniel O'Connell, — that enemy of peace and 
happiness, — as one of the most perfect specimens of 
patriotism that ever basked in the pure air of freedom. 
The poor Irish believe, most implicitly, in the ne- 
cessity of Auricular Confession ; and such is their 
delusion, that many of them, even in this country, will 
not be persuaded, at this day, that their priests take 
any pay for absolving them from their sins and forgiv- 
ing their crimes. It is not many days ago since a 
respectable physician in Boston told me that an Irish 
Roman Catholic, in that city, offered to bet him five 
hundred dollars that Roman Catholic priests de- 
manded no pay for pardoning sins. Can this be 
delusion, or infatuation, or is it a species of witchery 



616 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

that thus deceives, enchains, and blinds a people, in 
all other respects of quick imagination and natural 
talents ? I am free to confess, that I know not how to 
account for it myself. I am perfectly at a loss what 
to call it; but there it is, strange as it may appear. 

I would ask that gentleman who offered to make 
tlie above bet, or any other Koman Catholic who ever 
lived in Ireland, whether he has heard of such a thing 
as stations of confession^ which are held two or three 
times a year by every parish priest in Ireland ; or 
whether he has ever heard of such a thing as the Viat- 
icuMj which is given to the sick, after confession, and 
in articulo mortis. I cannot suppose that there is, in 
this country, an Irish Koman Catholic who has not 
seen and heard of both, and who does not know that 
these are modes and practices adopted by Irish priests 
for the purpose of collecting payment for the pardon 
of sins. There are regulations published in each dio- 
cese in Ireland, and put forth among the priests, by 
episcopal authority, regulating cleiical dues. Specific 
sums are laid down for mass, and for auricular confes- 
sion, — which the Church of Rome calls a sacrament, 
by the name oi penance, — for marriage, for baptism, 
extreme unction, &c. The parish priest selects two or 
more houses in each parish, — invariably those the 
most wealthy among the farmers, — and gives notice 
from the altar, the Sunday previous, that on a certain 
day, of the coming week, he will hold a station of con- 
fession at the house of A ; this notice is equiva- 
lent to saying, — and is understood in no other sense, 
— aZ/ you who have not come to confession for a cer- 
tain time, or who wish to go to confession now, come 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



617 



forivard and pay me my dues. The wily priest 
never says, come and pay me for pardoning your sins ; 
that would never do. Protestants may hear it, and it 
would surely go abroad that Irish priests were not 
entirely disinterested, and that they could no more live 
by prayer alone than other people. I have, by order 
of the parish priest, for whom I acted as curate during 
a short time, held many, of those stations of confession^ 
and never did a Yankee pedler drive a harder bargain 
with hi-s customers, than I was compelled to make 
with those who came to confession to me, for payment 
for pardoning their sins ; ' crediti amici^ however 
strange the declaration may appear to you ; I have 
been ordered by the same Popish priest, in Ireland, to 
administer what is called, in Popish parlance, the 
Sacrav/ient of Extreme Unction^ and to give to the 
dying patient the Viaticum ; I have done so hundreds 
of times, but never until, by order of the same priest, 
payment was made to me in advance, whenever there 
was the least doubt of the ability of the patient or his 
friends to pay. Before the Viaticum is given, or per- 
mitted to be given by the Irish bishops, it is required 
that the dying sinner should confess ; for be it known, 
the poor Irish Catholic is persuaded, that this Viaticum 
or wafer, made of flour and water, is the great God 
himself. The Viaticum is contained in a small box, 
called a pixis, and large enough to contain from ten 
to fifty of these wafers or Gods, and is carried in the 
breeches pocket of the priest. Do not laugh, Ameri- 
can Protestants, or imagine that I am dealing in 
fables; I have gone, hundreds of times, to hear the 
confessions of dying Irish Papists, and given them 



618 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

one of these Viaticums or Gods, fifty or sixty of 
which, I have often carried at a time in my pocket. 
My orders were, upon all occasions, never to give ab- 
solution or the Viaticum, to any one, until payment 
was first insured to me ; otherwise I had to pay the 
parish priest out of my own funds. Scenes which 
take place on such occasions, are truly heart-rending. 
The poor sick and simple Irish Catholic, believes 
that he shall be damned to all eternity, if he is not 
anointed and forgiven his sins by the priest. He 
would cheerfully pay him if he had the means; he 
would cheerfully sell the blanket that shelters him 
from the cold blasts of winter, to pay the hard-hearted 
priest; but the blanket is often worth nothing, is often 
but a filthy, lousy rag, such as no American can form 
the least conception of, though the well-fed priest lives 
in luxury. I have known some curates in Ireland, 
who had no means of their own, to take the chick- 
ens, the ducks, or turkeys of poor men whom they 
anointed^ and who had no money to pay the priest for 
pardoning their sins, and tie the legs of those fowls 
together, throwing them across their saddles, and car- 
rying them home to pay the parish priest. The poor 
curate perhaps was not worth a dollar, and dare not 
return to the priest without bringing with him his 
dues. 

It is extremely unpleasant to dwell upon the dis- 
gusting scenes which are daily witnessed in the sick 
rooms of the Msh peasantry. The idea of dying 
without obtaining absolution and extreme unction from 
a Roman Catholic priest, is agonizing and intolerable 
to a poor Irish Papist, and it is considered as an ever- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 619 

lasting stigma even upon his posterity. Every effort 
is therefore made to procure a shillings which is the 
minimum charge made by a priest for administering 
exteme unction. Any man may judge of the feelings 
and mental distress of a dying man who believes that 
he has not an hour longer to live, and that his eternal 
salvation depends upon the absolution of his sins and 
the application of extreme unction, or blessed oil, by 
his priest. But the dying individual is not the only 
one who suffers ; the wife, the children, and grand- 
children, participate in his mental sufferings; and 
those warm-hearted creatures would give, and do give, 
the last potato from their table, or the last basket of 
turf in their possession, to a priest, rather than witness 
ai4y longer the sufferings of the dying parent. It 
must seem strange that this people should not make 
some effort to shake off" the chains with w^hich their 
priests have bound them to the car of Popery; but 
they will not. Siich is the influence of superstition 
over their minds, that they will suffer on forever, unless 
Protestant Christians do something to relieve them. 
The Protestant government of Great Britain would 
willingly break those chains which bind this generous 
and warm-hearted people to Popery, but they will not 
have them broken. The Popish bishops of Ireland 
have recently refused to accept the provision which 
the Protestant government of Great Britain seems wil- 
ling to make for the support of the Roman Catholic 
church and priests in Ireland. That demon in human 
shape — that traitor in the guise of a patriot and 
Christian — Daniel O'Connell, advises the Roman 
Catholic bishops of Ireland not to accept the state 



820 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

provision which Great Britain is willing to make fc : 
the priests of the Irish Catholic church. This man's 
drafts upon the credulity of mankind are very large — 
so large that I believe they cannot be honored much 
longer. Why do Irish priests refuse the state provis- 
ion which Great Britain is willing to make for them ? 
Why do they not accept it from that source, rather 
than drag it from the poor, in shillings, in chickens, 
ducks, turkies, barrels of potatoes^ pounds of butter, 
cishes of turf, &c. &c. ? Why does Daniel O'Connell 
advise them, in his traitorous harangues, not to receive 
the liberal provision which the British government 
seems willing to make for them ? The reason is plain 
to the most careless and superficial thinker. The 
traitor knows very well that the ultimate success of aU 
his ambitious designs depends upon the cooperation 
of the Popish church and its priests in Ireland. He 
knows full well that if the priests were paid by the 
state, they would lose their influence with the people, 
and that he would lose the cooperation of both in his 
treacherous designs to overthrow Protestant govern- 
ments and Protestant religion in England and else- 
where. Disguise it as he may, cover it over with 
Jesuitical varnish of what thickness or depth he 
pleases, it is evident that the overthrow of Protestant- 
ism in Church and State is the grand object which 
O'Connell and the Popish church have in view, in 
their present movements, both in Ireland and in the 
United States. The Popish bishops and O'Connell 
are aware that the moment the parish priests and 
curates of Ireland were paid their dues, they (the 
bishops and O'Connell) must lose their influence 



POPISH NUNNERIES. g21 

with the great mass of the people. This is evident to 
myself. But what sort of influence would they lose ? 
Must they lose that influence which a Christian min- 
ister of the gospel would like to possess over his flock, 
and which every good man likes to see in all evan- 
gelical religions? I answer in the negative, and I 
challenge fair contradiction. They could lose nothing 
which a pious Christian or a good citizen would de- 
sire to retain. They could only lose their influence as 
rebels to God and traitors to the rights of man. 

Will Americans reflect for a moment that we have 
about three millions of the disciples of O' Council and 
Popish bishops in this country ? Let every lover 
of our constitution ponder seriously upon this fact. 
How do Popish bishops persuade their people to blind 
submission to their will, and to the will of the traitor 
O' Council? It is done through the confessional. 
That is the channel through which the poison of 
treason and idolatry is infused into the minds of 
Papists. But let that O' Council take heed, lest the 
fate of Dante, once as good a Roman Catholic as 
himself, should overtake him. Apropos, Corporal 
Brovmson, Bishop Fenwick's mouth-piece in Boston, 
makes a boast of the fact that Dante was a Roman 
Catholic, and assures us that he was an honor to 
the Popish Church. I wonder whether the Corporal 
has ever read Dante's poem on Hell? If he has, I 
would advise him to have written on the door of 
every Popish confessional, that caution which Dante 
recommended to be posted on its portals. I have 
not a copy of Dante in my possession, but it was 
something to this effect, '■'•Pause before you enter this 



622 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



gate^ This caution should be written in large letters 
upon the door of every Romish confessional in the 
civilized world. I can assure those who enter that 
accursed tribunal, that they may as well enter the hell 
described by Dante. I ov/e an apology to the public 
for the frequent mention of the name of Brownson, in 
these pages ; but he has proved to me so great and 
prolific a source of mixed sadness and merriment, that 
I could not avoid frequent allusion to his name. I 
verily believe that were it not for him, I could scarcely 
write the present volume. 

"Without thee ^Corporal Brownson'\ nothing lofty could I sing; 
Come, then, and with thyself thy genius bring." 

The Corporal^ I understand, is now lecturing in 
Philadelphia, on the infallibility oi the Romish church, 
and the simple purity of its democratic form of gov- 
ernment. According to Brownson, who never utters a 
word until it is first approved by the Roman Catholic 
bishops in the United States, no form of government 
should be allowed, but such as that now established 
and sanctioned by the Pope of Rome. The Pope's 
subjects^ and they alone, as Brownson assures us, are 
fit to bear aloft the standard of liberty. No hands 
should be permitted to touch or embroider the flag 
of freedom, but those of chaste nuns and sisters of 
charity in the Popish church ; and no arms should be 
allowed the honor of defending that flag, but the 
valorous ones of those who have been pardoned their 
sins at the holy tribunal of confession. Is this really 
the state of things ? If so, thrice welcome the sisters 
of charity amongst us, and ten thousand welcomes to 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 

those Popish patriots who have confessed their sins 
and been pardoned by their priests. But what if the 
government of the Court of Rome should be found 
not to be, in reality, all that our Popish bishops recom- 
mend, and all that Brownson represents it? Y/hat 
if it should be found that the Pope is not an angel, 
and that his government is far from being perfect ? 
How would it be if his Royal Holiness the Pope, 
were proved to be a weak and licentious old profli- 
gate, unable to rule, and unwilling to obey ? What 
if his government were proved to be one of the 
most corrupt, avaricious, tyrannical, that ever existed 
upon earth ? This would entirely change the position 
of aftairs, and could not fail to tinge with a blush the 
cheeks of our citizens who are weak enough to listen to 
the ranting declamations of the hired infidel Brownson. 
I have before me the last number of the Westminster 
Keview, a work of great talent and popularity, widely 
differing in tone, and style, and respectability, from a 
thing called Brownson's Democratic Review. The 
reader will easily pardon me for quoting a few extracts 
from it, which will tend to throw some light on the 
beauties of that Popish republicanism which the bish- 
ops of the Catholic church are desirous of introducing 
into the United States. I beg the particular attention 
of my readers to it. There is more of good sense, 
sound judgment, truth, and good taste, in it, than in 
all the clishmadaver which has been issued from the 
Popish presses and Jesuit quarterly reviews in the 
United States, during the last half century. " We are 
not here to treat of the Pope, that nominal head of the 
State — all-powerful for evil — absolutely impotent for 
27 



624 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

good. As a general rule, he may be set down as an 
old imbecile, thrust into power by a faction of the 
Cardinals, who share among them the spoils ; or as a 
veteran trafficer in ambition, who settles with his 
electors the price of his elevation to the Papacy, and 
who is compelled, at the risk of his life, to observe the 
conditions of the compact. The real chief is the 
Secretary of State — Sacretario di Stado — this is he 
who is the leader of the faction in the conclave. He 
stands above all authority. He is supposed to receive 
the responses of the Papal oracle, and to utter them 
in the name of laws. A few strokes of the pen, for- 
warded to a tribunal, enable him to annihilate, without 
publicity, statutory enactments." How would our 
Western citizens, Wolverines, Suckers, Hoosiers, and 
Squatters, like such a Secretary of State? How 
would the citizens of Tennessee, and Illinois, like such 
gentlemen, as Secretaries for their respective States? 
How many votes, reader, do you suppose such a man 
would receive, were he a candidate for re-election as 
Secretary of State, in Vermont or New Hampshire? 
Very few, I apprehend ; and yet the infidel Brownson, 
who is a native of Vermont — if I am correctly in- 
formed — is trying to establish amongst us a religion 
which would force upon us the duty of supporting such 
characters for the highest offices in our government. 

" Next to the Secretary of State," continues the 
Westminster Keview, " comes a Cardinal. His titles 
confer upon him the Presidency of the Apostolic 
Chamber, and the management of the customs and 
the mint. . . . His titles would lead one to infer that 
the general direction of the postal department was 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 625 

intrusted to him, though he has nothing to do with 
it. The posts are under a separate and independent 
jurisdiction .... More definite in duty, but equally 
unaccountable as to performance, is the Treasurer 
General, who completes a supreme triumvirate of the 
Papal States. He is the real minister of finance, 
though with the usual rule of misrule^ several branches 
of that head are entirely independent. He attends to 
the collection of the revenue, and appoints the provin- 
cial receivers ; he contracts loans, and orders the sale 
of public property. He never gives account to any 
one of his administration^ nor of the distribution of 
the funds that enter the treasury; neither has any 
one a right to demand an account. He can only be 
dismissed from his office by being promoted to the 
office of Cardinal ; he then leaves on his desk a key, 
supposed to be that of the treasury, being the only 
formality that is indispensable." This is taking the 
responsibility^ with a vengeance! The reason why 
the Popish Church gives this unlimited power to the 
secretary of her treasury, deserves peculiar notice. 
Americans should view it closely. All Protestant 
governments and Protestant countries should examine 
it attentively. The Pope and his government are 
aware that if their Secretary of the Treasury were 
compelled to give a correct account of the monies 
he received, and the uses for which they were appro- 
priated, their plans, their bribes, their subornation 
of witnesses, their intrigues, and various modes of 
overthrowing Protestant governments and Protestant 
churches, could not fail to be discovered, and then the 
unanimous voice of mankind would cry aloud, Down 



626 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

with Popery ! down with the Beast ! dovm with the 
old harlot of Rome ! If the Pope's treasurer were 
compelled to account for the millions upon millions 
which Jesuits and Popish priests wring from the hard 
earnings of mankind, the Romish church could not 
exist an hour longer, and there is not a Protestant 
government upon earth, that would allow within its ju- 
risdiction a Popish college, bishop, seminary, nunnery, 
or monk-house. Were the treasurer of the Romish 
church obliged to give a fair account of the uses to 
which he appropriated the funds received and ex- 
pended by him, Americans could soon know where 
Bishop Hughes of New York receives the vast sums 
of money which he has been expending for several 
years back, in erecting colleges and nunneries, into 
which he may decoy the children of Protestant Amer- 
icans. It would then be known where Bishop Purcel 
of Ohio, obtained the funds with which he clandes- 
tinely, and without giving them any notice, purchased 
the buildings occupied by the Misses Beecher and 
others, in the city of Cincinnati, as a seminary for 
the education of young ladies. The Popish Bishop 
Hughes of New York never owned a dollar of his 
own ; it is but a few years since he was employed 
as a gardener in the college of Georgetown or Em- 
metsburg, I forget which. Bishop Purcel of Ohio 
was equally poor and destitute ; but now these right 
reverend Jesuits have at their command any amount 
of money which they in their judgment may deem 
necessary to proselytize American heretics^ and over- 
throw their republican form of government. 

Could we but know how the treasurer of the Pope 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 627 

disposed of the funds of his church, the Jesuit Bishop 
Fenwick of Boston, could no longer conceal from the 
citizens of Massachusetts, where he found means to 
build a Popish college at Worcester ; to which, I 
understand, he soon intends adding an extensive nun- 
nery and a Foundling Hospital^ in which fatherless 
orphans^ or rather the bastard children of Jesuits, are 
to be provided for. 

It is sound policy, in the Popish Church, not to re- 
quire from the Pope's treasurer, any account of the 
mode or manner in which he disposes of the funds 
entrusted to his charge. And I cannot withhold from 
them due credit for this admirable stroke of policy, 
wicked and demoralizing as it is in reality. 

" Yet lower, beneath the class of principals and sub- 
alterns, swarms, as reptiles in filth, a hideous race, not 
to be hinted at in good society, but whose abnormal 
existence must be proclaimed in our effort to make 
intelligible the nature of papal government — a race 
of varlets, parasites, prostitutes, trafficers in vice, le- 
gions of familiar demons, who crawl from the base- 
ment to the very summit of the edifice. The celibacy 
of the clergy, — the occupiers of every avenue to power, 

— is the source of their influence For ages past, 

the interior corruption, and the power exercised at 
Kome by domestics and women of gallantry, has 
been notorious; but before the time of Pius VI. (Pius 
died only about fifty years ago) the profligacy of the 
priests, though more brazen, had not, in general at 
least, stained the family hearth. The natural children 
of Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops, impudently recog- 
nized, by their elevation to the highest dignities, w*3re ' 



628 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

not the offspring of their neighbors' wives At a 

later period, the depravity general in Europe, during 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the examples 
set by Cardinals Eichlieu, Mazarin, and Alberoni, and 
the morale of theology disseminated by Jesuits, — mas- 
ters in the art of inciting the human passions, to turn 
them in the end to their own account, and of fostering 
covert infamy, to lord it over their penitents by the pos- 
session of their secrets (in the confessional,) — taught, 
by Roman Cardinals and Bishops, that it was more con- 
venient, and less scandalous, to insinuate their seduc- 
tion, Vv'here it Vv^as the interest of all parties to conceal it." 
The Westminister Review is good authority upon 
any subject; but I have adopted a general rule, in 
my controversy with Papists, never to quote from 
Protestant authorities, except when I know, of my 
own knowledge, that the facts stated by them are true, 
and susceptible of proof. This is not — as the reader 
may easily imagine — because I doubt the veracity of 
Protestant writers, but because Jesuits will persuade 
their followers, that my statements are only a repeti- 
tion of old lies^ fabricated by heretics. I have un- 
qualifiedly accused the Roman Catholic priests and 
bishops of this country, and elsewhere, of using the 
confessional for the infamous purpose of seducing 
females. I have charged upon nunneries, that they 
were nothing better than legalized houses of prostitm- 
lion, and established among us, by the Pope of Rome 
and his bishops, for the sole purpose of affording them 
better opportunities and greater security in their im- 
moralities and high-handed profligacies ; and I appeal 
*o Americans, of all denominations, whether I have or 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 629 

have not established my charges against them. I ask 
any well-read American, who is acquainted with the 
private history of Cardinal Richlieu, whether he was 
not one of the greatest profligates of his day ? Is it 
not well known, that Cardinal Mazarin was so noto- 
rious a profligate, that no man's wife was safe in his 
society, or proof against his political influence and ex- 
travagant expenditures. He was Prime Minister to 
Louis XIV. of France ; he had, in his gift, nearly all 
the offices under the government ; and it was well 
understood, throughout all France, that it was perfectly 
useless for any man whose wife was not young and 
beautiful, to apply to him for office. There is not to 
be found, a well informed man, who has not read th6 
life of Cardinal De Retz, and who does not know that 
his house, and his soirees, were places of rendezvous 
for gay women, and especially for that portion of 
them whose character for chastity was not the best. 
Let it be observed here, that the parish priests and 
cures were all in the pay of these Cardinals, and em.- 
ployed to procure and select for them, through the 
confessional, the most beautiful and desirable women 
in Paris ; and faithfully did these Popish pimps dis- 
charge their commissions. But still, the Jesuits of 
this country, and that miserable outcast mouth-piece 
of theirs, Brownson, talk of the infallibility of the 
Romish Church, and the superior beauties of its 
democratic form of government. Can it be possi- 
ble that the enlightened Republicans of the United 
States, have patience to listen to the diatribes of this 
man against Protestant governments and Protestant 
Churches? Yet so it is; and I have not the least 



680 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



doubt, that many of the indignant expressions, which 
I make use of in speaking of him and Jesuits, will 
be found fault with, as they have been before, by many 
of the mawkish sympathizers with Popery, in the 
United States. 

There are to be found, among the good and virtu- 
ous of our Protestant people, many who think that 1 
should use milder language than much of that con- 
tained in my books, — that some of it is too harsh, — 
that it shows a bad spirit, a bad temper, and is — pro 
tanto — an indirect evidence, that I possess not a 
Christian feeling towards Popery or its advocates. 
That I am not what a Christian ought to be, in 
thought, word, and deed, I will freely admit. But 
those sympathizers^v^hexhex Infidels or Christians, who 
think that I should use milder language in my contro- 
versy with Papists, know but very little — as I have 
often told them before — of the spirit and elements of 
Popery, or the mode of warfare adopted by its Jesuits; 
and hence it i?^, that whenever they themselves enter 
the lists of controversy with Popish priests, and Jesuit 
presses, they are invariably and ingloriously defeated. 
I would ask these gendemen, who find fault with the 
apparent asperity of my language, whether they could, 
collectively or individually, silence the bowlings of a 
northeast storm by softly whistling Yankee Doodle, 
or humming Hail Columbia? When they can do 
this — but I doubt much if it can be done sooner — 
then they can silence scurrilous Jesuits in their abuse 
of Protestant religion, and check the efforts of the 
Popish presses in the United States, by using mild, 
charitable, and gentlemanly language, in all controver- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 631 

sies with them. The fact is, Protestants and Protest- 
ant theologians too, must alter their mode of warfare 
with Papists. 

The Popish press in the United States, has always 
endeavored, and never failed in the attempt — as far 
as T know — to place om* Protestant presses in a po- 
sition of defence. A single thrust from their journals, 
inflicts a wound which requires months to heal; the 
prescription alone, which is necessary for a cure, occu- 
pies whole columns of our presses and periodicals, 
and thus they have a great advantage over their Pro- 
testant opponents. I have never given them this 
advantage, and until my Protestant fellow laborers in 
the glorious cause of religion and civil rights, follow 
my example, in their controversies with Papists, they 
may as well 'pile arms' at once, and retire from the 
arena. I have carried the war with Papists, into Afri- 
ca, but not until all overtures for peace proved inef- 
fectual. I have inflicted upon them wounds, which it 
will require some time to heal. The result has shown 
the policy of my course towards them. It is scarcely 
twelve months, since repeal meetings, — which in reali- 
ty were meetings held for the ill-disguised pm'pose of 
overthrowing the Protestant Church and government 
in this country, — were held in every hall and place of 
public meeting in our cities. I have exposed the co- 
vert intentions of those meetings, in pure Saxon lan- 
guage. .1 have called the priests and Jesuits who 
encouraged them, as well as the presses which advo- 
cated them, — traitors, and enemies to religion and 
the civil rights of our people. What has been the 
consequence? We scarcely hear now, of a repeal 
27* 



632 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

meeting, lis advocates have been silenced, and they 
are obliged to abandon the cause, or support it under 
some other name or title, which I understand they are 
doing now, in Boston, under the infamous disguise of 
taking up contributions for the starving Irish. The 
Popish bishops, finding me rather a troublesome cus- 
tomer, and well versed in Jesuitical fencing, — parry- 
ing and thrusting with as much skill and precision 
as they themselves, having been taught in the same 
school with them, and by the same masters, — have 
come to the wise conclusion, that they had better let 
me alone, and tacitly admit the truth of every accu- 
sation which I have brought against them. They 
seem, however, resolved to die hard, and recently com- 
missioned the notorious infidel Brownson to defend 
them, and, if possible, to exculpate them from the 
enormous and vile crimes of seduction and treason, 
which I have brought against them. I fondly hoped 
that when this Brownson took the field in defence of 
Popery, some of those vieekj bashful theologians, and 
editors of religious journals, who think my language 
too harsh, would come against him and his Jesuit 
masters. There is not a scurrilous epithet in the Eng- 
lish vocabulary, which Brownson and his Jesuit mas- 
ters, have not applied to Protestants and Protestant 
presses. He has encouraged, by advice of Jesuits, 
treason to this government, by recommending the 
government of the Pope, as a better and more repub- 
lican system; and still, I find — much to my regret — 
that there is not a single Protestant divine in the coun- 
Tiy, or a single Protestant periodical — as far as I 
can discover — willing to raise his voice or publish an 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 633 

article against him. They all seem alive to the para- 
mount necessity of finding fault and condemning 
what they term cheap literature^ as calculated to de- 
moialize the community. Eugene Sue, and Michelet, 
are special objects of their censure. It was only the 
other day, that an orthodox clergyman, who holds a high 
station and receives a high salary from his church, de- 
livered, in New York, a philippic of nearly two hours' 
length, against Eugene Sue's Wandering Jew, and con- 
cluded with a Jeremiad, bemoaning that so many cop- 
ies of it should have been distributed in the book stores 
in New York. " The work," — observed this learned but 
mistaken lecturer, — ^' i^ flooding Xhe country." Very 
tnie, it is flooding the country; but is not Popery flood- 
ing the country ? Are not Jesuits flooding the country ? 
Are not Popish concubines, denominated nuns and sis- 
ters of charity, flooding the country? Is not Brown- 
son, the Pope's Agent, flooding the country with infidel 
principles and treason against our government ? Which 
of these floods does the reverend gentleman to whom 
I allude, prefer ? He is now fairly between Scylla and 
Charybdis ; he must fall upon one ; and which does 
he choose ? The Popish flood, which Eugene Sue is 
trying to dam, or the flood occasioned by the sale of 
the Wandering Jew in New York and elsewhere? 
The former is a torrent which flows forever ; the latter 
— even if it were destructive for the moment, is but a 
land flood, that may cover the meadows to-day, but 
disappear on the morrow. Utrum horam mavis accipe. 
Let the reverend lecturer, and those who maintain 
similar opinions of modern and an ti- Popish wriers, 
take their choice. 



834 AURICULAR CONFESSION A^D 

There is no proporlion, I apprehend, to be found 
between the zeal of those lecturers and then- knowl- 
edge of human nature. The fact is, that very few of 
them have travelled far into the regions of general 
science ; each seems to be confined wathin the circle 
of his own creed, and many of them vainly endeavor 
to lay the foundations of morality much higher than 
the existence of moral agency itself. They resemble, 
in a great measure, some of those ancient philosophers 
who supposed that the essences of things existed be- 
fore the things themselves made their appearance, or 
could assume any shape or form. For instance, they 
imagined the essence of black and v\^hite, red, blue, 
pink, &c., had existence before there w^as any such 
thing as color. There were many philosophers who 
supposed that the essence of square and circle existed 
before there w^as any such thing as form. Many of 
our modern moralists and lecturers upon morality are 
little less extravagant in their ideas; and if they do 
not check their imaginations and unmeaning devia- 
tions from common sense, in some of their public 
lectures, they must soon share the fate of those ancient 
dreamers to whom I have alluded. Lecturers now-a- 
days must recollect that men are permitted to exercise 
— and that freely — their own judgment. We find it 
very difficult to accompany many of our speakers in 
their extraordinary flights to the regions of morality, 
in which the common sense and sound doctrine of 
moral agency, are entirely lost sight of. The lecturer 
who w^ould condemn the efforts of Eugene Sue to 
arrest the progress of Jesuitism, shows but a very 
limited knowledge of this world, and impliedly denies 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 635 

the efficacy of human agency. He will soon find that 
his own efforts to impede the progress of Popery will 
prove ineffectual; they will be lost in those regions of 
fanciful perfection which his own imagination has 
cieated. Theologians of all denominations are pecu- 
liarly apt to run into extremes ; many of them take 
certain standards of morality, which cannot be de- 
fended, and which need not be sustained, and they are 
^ery apt to pronounce all who differ from them to be 
ill error, when in fact charity and good sense demand 
from them a frank acknowledgment, that though they 
themselves may be right, it does not follow that others 
are wrong. Eugene Sue condemns not only the reli- 
gious doctrines of Jesuits, but severely censures their 
political creed. He holds the latter up to the world 
as dangerous and destructive to the happiness of the 
human kind. He knows man, in every state of soci- 
ety, and he writes to convince him in each. He is 
well versed in the elements of political government, 
and knows that it is upon the preservation and main- 
tenance of it in a heahhy form, that the happiness of 
man, in this world, depends. It is therefore perfectly 
idle, and worse than idle, for those lecturers who per- 
haps have no other ideas of the moral and political 
duties of man than those which they have learned 
from Baxter's Saint's Rest, Four Fold State, or his 
Crook in the Lot, to declaim against Eugene Sue, or 
any other man, whose better experience in the world 
leaches him to pursue a different course in trying to 
accomplish the same object. Let it not be supposed 
that I mean to speak disrespectfully of Baxter, or 
that a thorough knowledge of his works and writ- 



686 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



ings would prove useless to any one ; but no man of 
sense or prudence could suppose for a moment, that 
he was a match for Jesuits, or that a loiowledge of 
his and similar works would enable any lecturer to 
encounter Jesuits on the field of controversy. 

The policy which Jesuits would introduce into this 
country, and force upon us, by the authority of their 
church, could not long fail to divide this Union into 
fragmentary sections, and embroil our citizens in 
scenes of blood and slaughter, such as never have 
been witnessed before. We should soon have State 
armed against State ; and in place of one united army 
and one commander-in-chief, we should have twenty- 
eight armies, and as many generals-in-chief. This is 
precisely what the Jesuits and the Popish church are 
aiming at. This would give them, united^ a superior 
power, and to them we should have to appeal for the 
settlement of our difficulties. The policy of the Pop- 
ish church has always been a curious combination of 
ecclesiastical and democratic pretensions. In theory, 
it is democratic enough for our most rabid Locofocos ; 
but in practice, it requires from man the most thorough 
subjection. Let us look back to history, and the truth 
of this will appear evident. Any opposition to the 
Pope of Rome, from any sovereign, or any other au- 
thority whatever, is considered by the Popish church 
as treason against God and man. 

Every historian will recollect the murder of the 
Guises in France. The disturbances of the limes, 
and the causes which led to them, are well known to 
the readers of history; and let it not be forgotten, that 
the Popish doctrines and Popish republicanism which 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 637 

then existed in France, are now covertly and treacher- 
ously taught in these United States. In 15S9, some 
of the French people entertained scruples whether it 
was lawful or not to depose a legitimate sovereign, or 
put him to death, after swearing allegiance to him. 
The question was one of great anxiety among the 
people, and something was to be done to quiet it. 
INIeetings were called in different places, and it was 
finally determined by them to lay the subject before 
the Popish theological faculty of the University of 
Paris. This faculty had full power from his Holiness 
the Pope, to give judgment in the case, and the Cath- 
olics of France were bound to obey it. Accordingly, 
on the 7th of January, 1589, the great, and holy, and 
infallible doctors of Popish divinity in the College of 
Sorbonne met, by authority, and pronounced the fol- 
lowing decision : " Having heard the nature and free 
counsels of the Magistri, and after many and divers 
arguments heard, drawn, for the most part, verbatim 
from holy writ, the canon law, and the Papal ordi- 
nances, it has been concluded, by the Dean of the 
faculty, without any dissenting voice, first, that the 
people are absolved from the oath of fidelity and alle- 
giance sworn by them to the King. Furthermore, 
that the said people may, without any scruple of con- 
science, combine together, arm themselves, and collect 
money, for the maintenance of the Roman Catholic 
Apostolic religion, against a king." This is republi- 
canism, as taught by Jesuits and Papists. This is the 
republicanism which they teach through the confes- 
sional in the United States, and this is the democracy 
which they have commissioned the 'infidel Brownson 



638 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

to spread over our country. This is the republicanism 
which Eugene Sue is cautioning mankind against 
introducing amongst them, and Eugene Sue is the 
man whose writings many of our philanthropic, but 
mistaken lecturers, are trying to suppress. Eugene 
Sue has done more to stem the torrent of Popish 
democracy in this country, than any man who has 
wi'itten against Papists. He has attacked it in its very 
bud. He knew where it germinated. Our Protestant 
lecturers know not the source from which it springs, 
and therefore they had perhaps better let it alone alto- 
gether, until they become thoroughly acquainted with 
the principle that gave it birth, and the influences that 
sustain it. Eugene Sue knew full well that the Pop- 
ish confessional was the source and substance of all 
Jesuit treasons, immoralities, plots, and murders. He 
is a man of the world, and knows that licentiousness 
and despotism are more closely allied than is imag- 
ined by our simple-minded and pious lecturers ; he 
knows that both are inconsistent with liberty, — which 
should be the true end of all governments, — and he has 
therefore deemed it prudent to bring all his energies 
to bear against the Popish confessional, knowing full 
well that if that were- destroyed, together with the 
supremacy of the Pope of Rome, mankind could 
not fail to be benefited. He has attacked that confes- 
sional, not by whining over the immoralities of the 
times, or the romance of modern literature, — this any 
old woman can do, — but he has fallen upon it with 
the club of Hercules, whose well-aimed blows I pray 
heaven no lecturer may weaken. It is far from my 
intention to be disrespectful to any w^ell-meaning lee- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 



lurer against Popery, and it is still much further from 
my mind to be uncourteous towards any of those 
Protestant divines who disagree with me in regard 
to the anti-Popish writings of Eugene Sue; but I 
must do my duty, as I understand it myself. I am 
not unmindful that there was a time when general 
knowledge was a scarce article among the people, 
and when the clergy engrossed the largest portion of 
it; and I doubt whether it is not a great misfortune 
that many of our lecturers derive most of their knowl- 
edge of mankind from the study of works written in 
those times. Hence much of their unfitness to criti- 
cise the writings of men of the world. It is, how- 
ever, an easy matter to condemn the writings of any 
man ; but when a Protestant theologian publicly finds 
fault w^ith Eugene Sue, or any other writer against 
Popery, it is reasonable to expect him to supply some- 
thing better of his own. A good anecdote is told 
of Margaret, Governess of the Netherlands. When 
Luther first commenced writing against Popery, he 
handled the Pope and his Jesuit priests rather roughly ; 
he knew them of his own knowledge, just as I do 
myself. Margaret upon one occasion had around her 
some of her courtiers, who were chatting riiost politely 
and courteously, and commenting on the inelegance 
and uncourtliness of many of the expressions used by 
Luther in his writings. Margaret, suddenly turning 
round, asked one of the most garrulous and verbose 
amongst them, " Who is this Martin Luther ? " " He 
is," replied the courtier, " a rough and uncouth man, 
and from the coarseness of his language, I should 
suppose he was an ignorant man." " Yes, he is," ex- 



640 ' AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

claimed the whole circle of exquisite theologians and 
fashionables. " I am glad of it," replied Margaret. 
" You are learned men, possessing refined minds, and 
no doabt you will give us something better than he 
has written. I wish you would do so as soon as 
possible, and furnish me a copy of your production," 
Can the sapient critics to whom I have been alluding 
take a hint ? Eugene Sue understands much better 
the strength and power he has to contend with, than 
our American theologians do. If I estimate them 
coiTCctly, or if it be proper to judge of all by any one 
of them, I would say they know nothing whatever of 
the strength of Popery. I recollect having recently 
seen and read a speech delivered by a distinguished 
member of the Christian Alliance, at a meeting held 
in Boston, and the following passage in that speech 
made so vivid an impression on my mind, that I have 
not forgotten it since ; nor could I help inferring that 
if the speaker were a fair sample of the whole, they 
formed a very incorrect estimate of the power of that 
wily enemy to civil rights, the Pope of Rome. The 
following are literally the words of the speaker to 
which I allude : " I thought the Pope was a man of 
learning, but he aint; he 's a granny." This sentiment, 
and the mode of expressing it, may be satisfactory to 
the learned gentleman who uttered it, but to one who 
may be entirely indifferent, it is a much stronger evi- 
dence of the grannyism of the speaker, than of the 
Pope. I refer to this with no other view than to show 
how unacquainted some American theologians are 
with Popery, in every shape and form. This gentle- 
man should know that if the Pope were a f^ranny<^ 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 641 

it would be no argument against Popery, or any 
preventive of the evils with which it threatens us. 
Suppose a meeting of citizens were held, on the 
subject of our difficulties with Great Britain, we can 
easily fancy some spouter to rise in his place and 
say, " We have nothing to dread from that nation ; 
the Queen is but a silly woman ; she is but a mere 
granny." "Would not any sensible man at the meeting 
advise this spouter to sit down, and no longer intrude 
upon their time by such nonsense? It might be 
known to the meeting, that the government of Eng- 
land was not managed by the Queen, but by her 
Cabinet, composed of men well versed in the science 
of diplomacy and government intrigues. It is im- 
material whether the sovereign of England is in her 
cradle, flirting at a ball, or in her dotage — the power 
of England is not the less to be dreaded. 

Had our American theologians as much worldly 
tact, and knowledge, as they have of single minded- 
ness and true piety, they might easily know, that it 
is a matter of perfect indifference, — so far as the 
power of Rome is concerned, — whether the Pope be 
a granny or a sage. The affairs of his court are man- 
aged by unprincipled, crafty, and licentious men, who 
thirst for power and patronage. They are not without 
friends in this country. Many fear them, politicians 
sympathize with them, and they are gaining ground, 
in spite of the friends of liberty in the United States. 
But let not the friends of freedom or of religion des- 
pair. Popish influence cannot long prevail over the 
good sense and cool reflection of our Protestant peo- 
ple. No man has ever measured the strength and 



642 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

dangers of Popery more accurately that Eugene Sue. 
He knows that Popery has in view, not exclusively 
the propagation of its religion, but also the increase 
of its wealth and temporal dominion. It is accom- 
plishing both, in the United States, while it is losing 
the latter, in every other country in the world ; and it 
is my deliberate opinion, that if Eugene Sue and Mi- 
chclet, were put into the hands of every American 
who can read, they would do more towards shutting up 
the floodgates of Popery, which are now open upon this 
country, than any other means we could adopt towards 
effecting so desirable an object. Americans may 
suppose — and it will be extremely difficult to per- 
suade them to the contrary — that however the Pop- 
ish Church may succeed, in propagating her religion 
amongst them, she can never get possession — at least 
to any extent — of their property or temporal power. 
In this they are mistaken — egregiously mistaken. 

I beg leave to lay before my readers one instance 
— and let this one suffice for all — of the secret and 
fraudulent manner, in which the Church of Rome, 
through her agents, is gaining power and acquiring 
property in the United States. 

I had the honor, a few weeks ago, of receiving a let- 
ter from the Hon. , an eminent and distin- 
guished member of the Philadelphia Bar, of which the 
following is a copy : 

Philadelphia^ Nov. 14th, 1845. 
To Wm. Hogan, Esq. 

I make no apology for troubling you with this com- 
munication, having read your books and thereby per- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 643 

ceived that you are willing to serve the cause of truth 

and justice. . 

A suit has been instituted against the county ol 
Philadelphia, by a Society calling themselves "the 
Brothers of the Order of HerHiits of St. Augustine, 
to recover damages -laid in the declaration, at one 
hundred thousand dollars - for the destruction of the 
church of St. Augustine of this city. The Act of 
Assembly, upon which the suit is founded, gives the 
remedy to the owners of the property, and it is a part 
of ray duty, in defending this suit, to see that the suit 
is brought by the rightful persons, as a recovery by the 
wrong ones, would not bar those justly entitled, in a 
second action. You perceive, therefore, that it be- 
comes important to know who these Brothers are. 1 
have searched the records of their enrolment in vain 
for their charter and deeds. None are to be fjund, 
and indeed everything in relation to them is involved 
in such mystery that it is difficult to get along. 

As you resided a long time in the city and were, 
doubtless, intimate with some of the parties, would 
you do me the favor to enlighten me on the following 

^°i" Who are the Brothers of the Order of Hermits 
of St. Augustine? by whom instituted? are they en- 
abled to hold property? 

2. What property and estate do they hold f I 
perceive that, in 1820, they were composed of the fol- 
lowing persons; Michel Hurley; Prince Galligzen, 
Catholic pastor at Bedford, Pennsylvania; Lewis De- 
barlh, pastor of St. Mary's Philadelphia; Patrick 
Kenney, pastor at Coffee Run, Chester county, Penn- 



644 AURICUliAR CONFESSION AND 

sylvania ; and J. B. Holland, pastor at Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania. 

Did any of these churches belong to this Order ? 
and if so, which of them ? 

3. It has been often said that the Pope was the real 
owner of the Catholic churches in the United States. 
Is that true ? and if so, how shall I be able to prove 
this upon the trial of the cau-se ? 

4. It has been confidently asserted, that this Order 
of Hermits, is confined to ecclesiastical duties, and 
IS prohibited from holding real estate. Is this true, 
and if so, how shall I be able to prove it? An early 
answer, if it suits your convenience, will much oblige 
yours, — — 

We see, from the above letter, the modus operandi of 
the Romish Church in acquiring temporal power in this 
country. It is an axiom, and one as well understood 
by Americans as any other people in the world, that 
" money is power," and Papists understand it equal- 
ly well. These artful encroachers upon liberty, are 
not deceived in the effects which must result from the 
possession of property. Give them money, give them 
real estate, give them space and room for their follow- 
ers, and they will ask no more from Americans, — the 
rest they will have in spite of them. 

I would call the attention of any intelligent Ameri- 
can, to the above letter. I wish he would sit down 
with me and calculate, for a moment, the probable 
amount of property which the Popish Church now 
owns in the United States. In Philadelphia, one 
church possessed by an individual member of a com- 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 645 

paratively obscure order of friars, is estimated to be 
worth one hundred thousand dollars. Let us suppose 
that this order of friars owns or claims ownership to 
fifty such churches in the single State of Pennsylva- 
nia. That would give the Order of Hermits of St. Au- 
gustine five million dollars' worth of property in Penn- 
sylvania alone, without even taking into consideration 
the appurtenances and real estate belonging to these 
churches ; and if we admit that the " Brothers of the 
Order of Hermits," own ^or themselves, or as the 
Pope's agents, property wortn five millions of dollars 
in Pennsylvania, what must be the amount, owned by 
other different orders of friars, priests, and Jesuits, in 
that State? The amount, if correctly estimated, would 
baffle my limited powders of calculation. But Penn- 
sylvania is not the only state in the Union where 
Popish friars and priests are getting possession of real 
estate. They own millions upon millions' worth of 
property in almost every state in the Union, but espe- 
cially in Maryland, Louisiana, South Carolina, Ohio, 
New York, and Massachusetts. But it will be said, 
and I have heard it said in Boston, that the Popish 
Church cannot possibly own much property without 
the knowledge of our citizens, and can consequently 
acquire no influence of any amount from that source. 
There again Americans are deceived, and literally, as 
we term it, gulled by the Church of Rome. This is 
exemplified in the case alluded to in the above letter. 
There were but few in Philadelphia, — if any besides 
Popish priests, — who knew even of the existence of 
such an Order as that of the " Brothers of St. Augus- 
tine." I have searched in vain, says my correspond- 



646 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

ent, " for an enrolment of their charter." There was no 
record of it to be found ; yet the Order exists, and lays 
claim to damages amounting to one hundred thousand 
dollars, for the burning of a church, which forms but a 
fraction of that property which they allege to be their 
own. In vain do we examine our tax books, to ascer- 
tain the amount of property claimed as belonging to 
the Popish Church. We may look them over till the 
day of judgment and not be the wiser. Millions are 
now owned in the single city of Boston by the Pop- 
ish Church, of which the Bostonians, with all their 
shrewdness, have not the remotest idea. It is owned 
under cover, under fictitious names, and othexwise. It 
may be regularly appraised; its taxes may be regu- 
larly paid, but who it belongs to, or who has the bene- 
ficial interest of it, is what cannot be known until the 
arrival of the time w^hen the law requires, and impera- 
tively demands, that a legal ownership should be es- 
tablished, as happens to be the case in Philadelphia. 

It will be asked what reply I have made to my cor- 
respondent in Philadelphia. I answer none at all ; at 
least I have made none to the questions propounded 
to me. It may farther be asked, why not ? It is for 
the very reason which my correspondent assigns for 
propounding his questions to me. I w-ish to serve the 
cause of truth and justice^ but I have no desire to in- 
terfere in party questions, except in the way of my 
profession, on the emolument of which I am chiefly 
dependent for the means of subsistence. Were I to 
pause, in the course of my opposition to Popery, and 
turn aside to interfere in particular cases of contro- 
versy, I should soon lose the influence which I may 



POPISH NUNNERIES. (547 

now have in advancing the moral interest of the com- 
munity at large. I should soon be considered, not the 
friend of abstract " truth and justice," but a party bar- 
rator, unworthy the confidence and respect of my fel- 
low citizens. There is, besides, another reason for not 
yielding to the wishes of my respected correspondent. 
I have resided, as he himself states, " for some years 
in Philadelphia," and never have I ceased, during that 
time, to warn its inhabitants against the encroach- 
ments of Popery amongst them. But they heeded not 
my warning, and permitted the Papists of that city to 
heap upon me the grossest abuse that man ever en- 
dured. I have, over and over again, appealed to the 
Protestant inhabitants of Philadelphia, to come to my 
aid in my efforts to guard their religion and civil rights 
against the rapacious and impious efforts of the Court 
of Rome to destroy and rob them of both. I have of- 
fered them my personal services gratis for five years, 
if they would supply me with a church or pulpit, 
where I could preach and protest against the following 
doctrines ; viz., Auricular Confessions, the Supremacy 
of the Pope of Rome, the Popish Latin Mass, and the 
idolatrous doctrine of Transubstantiation. I made 
this offer through one or two of the public presses in 
Philadelphia, but the offer was entirely rejected by 
some, and coldly received by others. Here I must 
state — though with great regret — that not a single 
Protestant clergyman, of any denomination whatever, 
either in Philadelphia or elsewhere in the United 
States, offered me his pulpit, his aid, or his counsel. 
The doctrines, which I was willing to maintain then, 
were precisely those which John Ronge is disseminat* 
28 



t>49 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

ing in Germany ; and there is not a Protestant clergy- 
man in that country, who would withhold from him 
the use of his pulpit, or his influence, in so holy a 
cause as that in which he is engaged. But I can see 
a shade of difference, and not a very shght one, be- 
tween German and American Protestants. The heart 
of a German Protestant can be approached, through 
the medium of his understanding and conceptions of 
his moral obligations ; that of an i^merican Protestant, 
in many instances, can be touched only through his 
pocket. There is a sort of magnetic communica 
tion, or something else, between gold and the souls 
of some American Protestants. Solomon says that 
money can do all things; and had he alluded to this 
country alone, the saying of the wise man w^ould have 
been doubly true. 

But happily a change seems to have come over the 
spirits of our Protestant Christians. They are coming 
up to the work of gospel labor mth a noble zeal. 
There is but one voice among them on the subject of 
Popery, and may that voice be heard throughout the 
four corners of the globe. Down with the Pope 
Down with Popery ! and may the God of mercy spare 
and convert the poor deluded Papists. I believe I am 
safe in saying that there is not at present an evangelical 
clergyman in the United States, who would refuse the 
use of his pulpit or church to any individual, properly 
qualified to expose the errors and idolatries of the Pop- 
ish church. I have had, myself, applications from 
some of the most eminent men in the Orthodox ^church 
ill this country, lo preach and lecture from their pulpits, 
and should most cordially have accepted the friendly 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 049 

offer, if my feeble state for the last few months, had 
not entirely forbidden it. The same cause also at 
piesent forbids it, 

I have here digressed from the purpose of this vol- 
ume. But the subject towards which the digression 
is made, is of too much importance to be fairly dis- 
cussed within the limits of any digression, however 
wide or extensive it may be. It is one which must 
soon occupy the serious attention of our most talented 
and best informed Christian writers. It demands the 
consideration of all who understand the blasting influ- 
ence of Popery upon the morals of the rising genera- 
tion. Protestant theologians must come up to the 
work; they must open their churches, and pulpits, 
and lend their influence and their talents to put down 
Popery, or Popery will put them down. Nor let them 
suppose that when I charge them with apathy in this 
good cause, I am indulging any feelings of personal 
disappointment, or moved by any fitful, fretful, or angry 
thoughts towards them. On the contrary, it is because 
I entertain no such sentiments, that I speak with free- 
dom of things as they once struck me. I should be 
as silent as the grave on the subject, were it in the 
power of any man living to attribute to me pecuniary 
or interested motives. 

But to return to the point from which we have, in a 
measure, digressed. Such is the deception practised 
upon Roman Catholics, through the confessional, by 
their church, priests and their agents, that they (the 
Catholics) will not believe the plainest truths, unless 
sanctioned by them. I have often known them to dis- 
credit the testimony of their own senses, and I have 
now before me a case in point, confirming this almost 



650 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 

incredible assertion. It appears that some time ago, 
when much anxiety was manifested in England and 
elsewhere, in regard to the alleged destitute condition 
of the Irish tenantry, the London Times accused 
O'Connell, the Pope's agent in Ireland, of being 
himself one of the most oppressive landlords, and 
reducing his tenants to the most wretched condition. 
This was a serious charge against the Pope's vicege- 
rent. It could not, it must not be admitted. It will 
be recollected by the reader, that O'Connell and the 
Popish priests of Ireland have been for years, without 
any intermission whatever, accusing Protestant land- 
lords and Protestant clergymen of oppressing their ten- 
ants, and reducing them to the very extreme of want 
and penury. The proprietors of the London Times, 
aided by several philanthropic Protestant gentlemen, 
resolved to send over to Ireland a few gentlemen of 
known veracity, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of 
this serious accusation. They accordingly entered 
upon the discharge of their duty, proceeded forthwith 
to Ireland, and reported the condition of affairs just 
as they found them. According to their report, the 
charge against Protestant landlords had no foundation 
in fact, and was pronounced in the Times to be utterly 
groundless. No sooner had the Times reached the 
Island of Saints, than the whole body of saints, an- 
gels, and archangels — by whom we are to understand 
Popish priests, bishops, and archbishops — rose in a 
body, together with their presses, pamphleteers, period- 
icals, &c., and pronounced the statement of the com- 
missioners a base falsehood, and the Times itself a vile 
cmd scurrilous press. The proprietors of the Times 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 651 

and their friends were not, however, to be put down 
by this bullying ; they were not to be put down by 
this shameless beggar, inflated gascon and traitor, 
O'Connell. They proposed to O'Connell to send 
over six gentlemen, to meet any six whom he and his 
Popish friends might appoint, to examine the con- 
dition of the tenants upon O'Connell's own estate, 
taking that as a fair and most impartial specimen of 
the condition of the Irish tenantry. Nothing fairer 
than this could be offered. Surely, if all the misery 
of the Irish tenantry were fairly to be attributed to the 
Protestant church and Protestant landlords, no portion 
of it could be found on those estates owmed and held 
by Roman Catholics. But what was the course of 
O'Connell upon this occasion? He called a meeting 
of the saints^ angels.^ and archangels^ and laid before 
them the proposal of the Times; butlol and behold! 
he and they shrank from the proposition. On the 
receipt of their refusal, a competent individual was 
sent from the Times' office, to accompany the com- 
missioners back to Ireland, and to take note of what 
they saw in presence of Mr. O'Connell, or any of his 
friends whom he might appoint. The commissioners 
proceeded to the estate of Mr. O'Connell, in the county 
of Kerry, Ireland. They spent three days walking 
over it, going into every cottage and making personal 
inquiries. The result was published in the Times of 
December 25th, 1845. It speaks for itself, and cannot 
fail to be satisfactory to any man of truth and honor. 
The first day, the commissioners were accompanied by 
an agent of Mr. Hartop, under whom Mr. O'Connell 
holds some lands as a middleman. The second day 



652 



AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



they were accompanied from Valentia by Mr. O'Con- 

nell's own steward, throughout the whole of their 
inspection. The third day they were accompanied 
by one of O'Connell's sons, Morris O'Connell. They 
inspected his father's estates from Waterville to Der- 
rynane Beg. At Ardcara, — a town land which Mr. 
O'Connell holds on a lease of his own life, and sub- 
lets to a middleman, — the condition of the huts was 
perfectly horrible. The commissioners thus conclude 
their report upon the condition of the poor tenantry 
on the lands of Daniel O'Connell, the great liberator 
of Ireland — he who is sacrificing his iime^ his fortune, 
for the amelioration of the condition of mankind at 
large, but especially the Irish. It is with difficulty I 
can restrain a tear of sorrow, while I read the report 
which is given of the poor creatures who are the 
tenants of this cold-blooded hypocrite, O'Connell. I 
can already fancy the impatience of my readers to 
hear the conclusion of it. Here it is. Listen to it, I 
pray you, American Protestants. Hear it, you simple- 
hearted Irishmen in the United States, who have con- 
tributed thousands and tens of thousands to support 
in luxury this heartless impostor, O'Connell. "Tfe 
have,^^ say the commissioners, " been all over England, 
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and we declare solemnly, 
that in no part of the United Kingdom is such neg- 
lected vjretchedness, such filth, such squalor, such 
misery of evert/ kind, to be seen, as we sav>- on Mr. 
O^ ConneWs estate, in the presence of his son, Morris 
O'ConnellP 

There was a law among the Athenians, which 
provided that he who accused another of crime, and 



POPISH NUNNERIES. 653 

failed to substantiate or make good the accusation, 
should forfeit his head. Some doubted the wisdom 
of this law ; but there was one good in it which no 
man can question, li showed that he who accused 
another justly, was a man of principle, bold and 
intrepid in the cause of truth and justice. It showed, 
besides, that the crime of false swearing, or falsely 
accusing another, was looked upon as a crime hateful 
in its character, and of the utmost magnitude. 

If this old Athenian law were in force in Ireland, 
where now would be the head of O'Connell? Just 
where it ought to be, on the point of a spear at the top 
of some steeple, where the passer-by might point at it 
and say, there is the head of Daniel O'Connell, the 
false accuser of his Protestant countrymen. Where 
would be the heads of the Roman Catholic Bishops 
and Archbishops of Ireland? Where would be the 
heads of Bishops Hughes of New York, Fenwick of 
Boston, Purcel of Cincinnati, and the other Popish 
bishops of this country, who accuse American Protest- 
ants, and their clergymen, of persecuting Roman 
Catholics ? They might be found rolling in the dust. 

We should thank Heaven that no such law is to be 
found under the sanction of our free Constitution. 
But, though these men do not legally forfeit their 
heads, they lose all claim to the respect and confidence 
of every man of veracity and honor in any country. 
What now must be thought of the veracity of O'Con- 
nell, the would-be Liberator of Ireland ? What must 
an American Christian think of those Popish bishops, 
who vouch for the truth of O'Connell's statements? I 
know not, but my mind has long since been forp^ed 



654 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND 



'^^ 



and long since frankly expressed. They may not, 
perhaps, be worse than others similarly situated, but 
the position of these men, in this country at least, ren- 
ders them, morally and politically, iniquitous, and 
Americans should keep a watchful eye on them. 
Americans are not a very suspicious people ; freemen 
are seldom so. But let not even freemen ever forget, 
that the world is governed by men, and that men are 
governed by their passions and interests. It is pecu- 
liarly the duty of the citizens of the United States, to 
observe closely, the movements of O'Conneil and 
Irish priests among them. 

There are many of the latter mixed up with Amer- 
icans, and exercising a mighty influence over their 
political destinies : and it is the business of our laws 
to restrain them. Inquiries are now being made, to 
ascertain how far the governments of Europe are in- 
terfering with our Republican Institutions. Some 
movements to that effect have recently been made in 
Congress, and I beg to assure him who has originated 
this inquiry, that if he perseveres and carries it through, 
he will find that there is not in Europe, a monarchical 
power, or a Popish power, under whatever name it 
may appear, that is not engaged in endeavoring to 
overthrow this Republic They have been planning 
this for years, and finding that all other means were 
likely to prove inefficacious, they have concluded to 
introduce a Trojan horse into the citadel of our liber- 
ties, taking good care to fill it with Popish traitors 
fully armed and equipped. 

The limits of this volume do not permit me to 
dwell farther on this subject, but graviora manent. 



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